On May 2, 2026, Spirit Airlines officially shut down operations after filing for bankruptcy twice in 2024 and 2025, leaving customers without flights nationwide. While Spirit Airlines is notoriously known for being a cheap alternative compared to airlines such as United, Delta, and Jet Blue, the shutting down of air travel’s most notorious punching bag is nothing worth celebrating.
The airline had previously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy twice, on Nov. 18, 2024 and Aug. 29, 2025. However, recent worldwide developments, such as a national oil and gas crises, heavily contributed to the airline’s poor financial stability.
According to an official statement by Spirit Airlines released on May 2, “Despite the company’s efforts, the recent material increase in oil prices and other pressures on the business have significantly impacted Spirit’s financial outlook.” Spirit was oftentimes mocked for being a budget airline, often appearing to be the laughingstock of air travel, with frequent appearances on late night shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live! and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Yet Spirit Airlines catered to a specific group of consumers, those who either do not want to, or do not have the means to pay premium airline prices. For example, a flight from Fort Lauderdale International Airport in Florida to New York City would cost $146 on Spirit. Now compare this to that same flight on American Airlines which costs $237 as of May 2026.
Despite Spirit’s reputation as a less than ideal travel option, its shutdown will lead to an increase in airline prices. Airlines such as United and Delta lose a cheap competitor, making air travel more expensive and more difficult.
According to Marketplace, a news outlet specializing in covering economic and business trends, “You can expect airfares to rise between 15% to 20% for routes that Spirit used to fly if they’re no longer served by other low-cost carriers like Frontier or Breeze.”
Sean McWhorter, 12th grade AP Macroeconomics teacher says, “Anytime you lose competitive forces, it concentrates power in the forces that still exist. Whether that’s by merger, or whether that’s by falling out of the market, the result is the same-there are no fewer players in the industry, and then those players have more price control over their product.”
Spirit Airlines provided a cheap service in an expensive industry. Now that this service has ceased to exist, where will their customers go? Spirit Airlines may not have been the most luxurious airline, but it provided a gateway for people unable to afford premium airline prices to travel the world and because of that, Spirit Airlines should be missed.
