Spirit Airlines airplanes taxi on the tarmac at New York’s Laguardia Airport in the Queens borough of New York City, U.S., Nov. 7, 2025.<\/p>\n
Ryan Murphy | Reuters<\/p>\n
Spirit Airlines<\/a> could liquidate as early as this week, according to people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters that had not yet been made public.<\/p>\n The budget carrier has been struggling to regain its footing from its second bankruptcy<\/a> in less than a year, but it now faces the added challenge of a spike in the price of fuel<\/a>. Fuel is airlines’ biggest expense after labor.<\/p>\n “We don’t comment on market rumors and speculation,” Spirit said in a statement.<\/p>\n The exact day the carrier could begin liquidation wasn’t immediately clear. Bloomberg<\/a> earlier reported on the potential liquidation.<\/p>\n The news comes just as the U.S. airline industry, including Florida-based Spirit, is wrapping up its busy spring break season.<\/p>\n Pilot and flight attendant unions had made concessions<\/a> in recent months in a bid to help Spirit survive. The airline had planned to shrink and focus on high-demand travel periods and\u00a0routes<\/a> in a bid to exit bankruptcy as early as this spring.<\/p>\n Spirit enjoyed largely steady profitability for years and enviable margins in the industry. But things took a turn after the pandemic, when wages and other costs soared, customer preferences changed, and an oversupply of domestic flights drove down airfare, which was especially punishing for U.S.-focused carriers that don’t enjoy a buffer from plush first-class cabins and large credit card and loyalty program deals.<\/p>\n Its problems snowballed after a Pratt & Whitney<\/a>\u00a0engine recall grounded dozens of its Airbus aircraft starting in 2023 and its planned acquisition by JetBlue Airways<\/a> was blocked two years ago by a federal judge who ruled it was anticompetitive, leaving both carriers to fend for themselves against a backdrop where larger carriers dominate.<\/p>\n Spirit forecast it would generate a net profit of $252 million last year, according to a\u00a0court filing<\/a>\u00a0in December 2024, but it said in an August report<\/a>\u00a0that it lost nearly $257 million in a matter of months stretching from March 13, after it exited its first Chapter 11 bankruptcy, through the end of June. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection again less than a month later.<\/p>\n The airline had tried in recent years to win over higher-spending customers by offering roomier seats or bundled fares that include seat assignments and baggage to better compete with larger rivals whose profits have been buoyed big-spending customers post-pandemic. <\/p>\n