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HOUSTON – Nearly 1,000 Texans were left without jobs when Spirit Airlines suddenly shuttered last weekend, according to data from the Texas Workforce Commission.<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
Spirit ceased operations during the early-morning hours of May 2, blaming<\/a> a “sudden and sustained” increase in fuel prices for the decision.<\/p>\n Globally, about 17,000 employees were laid off. TWC data released this week showed that the airline reported 515 of those layoffs were in Houston and 444 were in Dallas.<\/p>\n Spirit airlines planes sits at the gate at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in Houston, Texas, on March 8, 2023. (Photo by DANIEL SLIM\/AFP via Getty Images) <\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n Flight attendant Aijah Smith told FOX 26 Houston that, while the closure didn\u2019t come as a surprise, it was still jarring.<\/p>\n “I didn’t register what she said,” Smith said, while recalling a phone call she got from her mother at her hotel in Houston. “And then I had another trainer, a fellow colleague of mine call me. And she was like, ‘Hey, are you OK? I know everything’s probably canceled.’ And I’m like, ‘Canceled? What do you mean?'”<\/p>\n Smith, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, was among hundreds of employees who had to find a new ride home after Spirit shut down.<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n Other major carriers, such as Fort Worth-based American Airlines, Houston-hubbed United and Delta, have offered to fast-track interviews for former Spirit staff.<\/p>\n Boeing has also scheduled virtual career expos<\/a> for Monday.<\/p>\n The Source: Information in this story came from the Texas Workforce Commission, Boeing, Spirit Airlines and previous FOX Local reporting.<\/p>\n Texas<\/a>Travel News<\/a>Houston<\/a>Consumer<\/a>Travel<\/a>Money<\/a>Economy<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON – Nearly 1,000 Texans were left without jobs when Spirit Airlines suddenly shuttered last weekend, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2409,56,242,2349,223,27,29,28,6208,3019,216,393,16351],"class_list":["post-284550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-consumer","tag-houston","tag-lifestyle","tag-money","tag-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-travel","tag-travel-news","tag-tx","tag-us","tag-us-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778255113_502_GettyImages-1247919914.jpg\")
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