Spirit Airlines is closing down. Thousands of employees and travelers are impacted.

Spirit Airlines is shutting down with immediate effect in a move that will affect thousands of scheduled flights and nearly as many employees.

The troubled budget carrier canceled all flights and announced an “orderly wind-down” of operations early Saturday.

“To our Guests: all flights have been cancelled, and customer service is no longer available,” the company said in a statement.

Spirit, which has struggled to maintain consistent profitability since the Covid-19 pandemic, had been looking to emerge from its second bankruptcy in less than a year. But those plans were derailed amid soaring jet fuel costs sparked by the outbreak of the war with Iran.

Spirit Airlines aircraft in Las Vegas last year. While it only ever carried a small slice of the flying public, Spirit's profitability was, at one point, among the top three of major U.S. airlines.Kevin Carter / Getty Images file

“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,” the company’s statement said. “With no additional funding available to the company, Spirit had no choice but to begin this wind-down.”

Last month, Spirit approached the White House for financial assistance, and President Donald Trump initially appeared receptive. But on Friday, reports surfaced that a wind-down was imminent after negotiations between the company, its bondholders and the White House appeared to break down.

At a news briefing Saturday morning, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said while there was potential for a deal between the airline and the government, “it had to be a good deal,” adding that it ended due to “a creditor issue.”

“Again, they have the final say of whether they want to do a deal with the government,” Duffy said. “But also from the government’s perspective, we oftentimes don’t have a half a billion dollars laying around in a spare account that we can put into a bailout of an airline. So, there was creative thinking on how it could happen. Those two things never materialized.”

In a statement, Spirit President and CEO Dave Davis said: “Sustaining the business required hundreds of millions of additional dollars of liquidity that Spirit simply does not have and could not procure.”

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Saturday, Davis added it wasn't his intention that the airline come to an abrupt halt leaving ticketed travelers in distress.

“We didn’t intentionally sell any tickets thinking we weren’t going to be here,” he told the journal. “We thought we were going to get the liquidity we needed.”

When asked if the joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran was the reason for the airline finally crumbling, Duffy said it was “in dire straits long before the war with Iran.”

“Multiple times they had filed for bankruptcy. Their model wasn’t working,” Duffy said. “They couldn’t get the fiscal health.”

Traveler impact

No Spirit flights were in the air as the shutdown took effect, but the closure has had an immediate impact on those who were set to travel, as well as those midtrip with return flights booked.

Spirit’s check-in desks sat empty at its hub airports on Saturday morning, save for some notices informing customers of the closure, with little help on hand for travelers figuring out what to do next.

Angela Moreno was meant to fly from Fort Lauderdale to Nashville Saturday morning for a wedding, but found out about Spirit’s closure just before heading to the airport, leaving her scrambling to try and find another last-minute flight.

“The whole family is going there from different states, so it’s very shocking,” she told NBC News. “There’s many people who cannot attend the wedding as of now.”

“They’re refunding the tickets, but the only tickets right now are $600,” she said, adding that it looks unlikely she will make it to the wedding in time. “I hope the best for those people who really needed that flight.”

Ricardo Tejedo, 72, found out about the closure as he arrived at the airport in Fort Lauderdale for his flight to the Dominican Republic.

“I came here not to vacation. I came here for medical reasons,” he said. “I cannot understand how they’re going to go bankrupt and not make any arrangement for people to have a smooth return back home.”

On the website dedicated to its shutdown, the airline said passengers who were expecting to travel should not go to the airport, directing them to a page for refund status and next steps.

The airline said it will automatically process refunds for any flights purchased through it with a credit or debit card, but passengers who did not book directly will need to request a refund via their travel agent.

Passengers will not be reimbursed for costs incurred as a result of the flight cancellations, such as emergency hotels, unless otherwise covered by their travel insurance plans.

Duffy, meanwhile, encouraged those who bought tickets via credit card to initiate a charge-back through their card issuer. He announced actions to support Spirit passengers and employees, including an agreement with United, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest to cap ticket prices for Spirit customers who need to rebook canceled flights.

“We’ve activated our airline partners to ensure passengers are not stranded, communities maintain route access, fares do not skyrocket, and Spirit’s workforce is connected to new job opportunities,” Duffy said in a statement.

Recent problems

The trade association of top U.S. airlines, Airlines for America, listed measures major carriers are taking to support those affected by the shutdown. Some are offering “rescue fares” and price capping on Spirit routes, bringing home Spirit crews who may be stranded, and promoting employment vacancies for the airline’s former staff.

JetBlue said it would “significantly expand” its presence at Fort Lauderdale, with chief executive Joanna Geraghty saying its focus would be “on stepping up in the near term by adding service, maintaining connectivity, and keeping fares competitive.” American Airlines also said it was reviewing opportunities to add additional capacity on routes previously served by Spirit.

Some Spirit staff posted tributes on social media after waking up to find out they would be out of a job.

“Here’s to 19+ years, lifelong friends made and the best job this guy ever had,” pilot Jason Smith said on Instagram.

“This isn’t the ending I imagined, but it’s a chapter I’ll always be proud of,” flight attendant Temptest Nicole wrote in another post.

At its height of success in the mid-2010s, Spirit opened as many as 28 new routes in less than a year and the company was valued at as much as $6 billion. It attracted passengers with its “bare fare” offerings, where everything from drinks to overhead carry-on bags cost extra, while base airfare was kept to a minimum.

And while it only carried a small slice of the flying public, Spirit’s profitability was, at one point, among the top three of major U.S. airlines.

Long the subject of takeover rumors in an industry known for them, Spirit attempted to sell itself to JetBlue in 2022 after it struggled to regain financial footing in the wake of the pandemic. Had that happened, it would have created the fifth-largest airline in the country.

But Biden-era officials at the Justice Department argued that the combination would violate federal antitrust regulations, and in 2024 a judge sided with them and struck down the merger agreement.

Within months, Spirit filed for bankruptcy protection for the first time to satisfy debt obligations — the first major U.S. airline to file for Chapter 11 since 2011.

A judge approved a reorganization plan in early 2025, only for the airline to file once again in August amid weakening demand among budget flyers and spiraling costs. Talks about a proposed merger with Frontier Airlines emerged in December, but ultimately led nowhere.

Duffy said Saturday that blocking the proposed JetBlue merger was a “massive mistake” and blamed the Democrats for getting in the way of making the aviation industry “stronger.”

“I want a lot of airlines, I want a lot of healthy airlines,” Duffy said. “I want the more premium airlines, but I also want a healthy group of low-cost carriers, and that’s going to, I think, give the American people different options, different prices, to travel across the country.”

Duffy said that as a result of a low-cost carrier like Spirit shutting down, the industry will experience a shakeout where larger carriers that provide better offers and service take complete control.

Unions representing about 2,000 pilots, 5,500 flight attendants, mechanics and other employees laid off by Spirit called on its leadership and the government to ensure workers receive the compensation and benefits they are owed.

Spirit traces its origins to a Michigan-based trucking company founded in the 1960s, with air operations starting up in the 1980s. In 1999, the company moved its headquarters to the Fort Lauderdale area in Florida, where it has been located ever since. At the end of 2025, it employed approximately 17,000 personnel.

Matthew Mulligan contributed.