This has been reported as US Internal news, but Spirit did service Mexico, the Caribbean and other places in Central and South America.
Their closure has a wide impact.
this post was submitted on 02 May 2026
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People compare them to Ryanair in Europe but that’s a gross mischaracterisation.
Ryanair is a notorious fuel hedger, locking in prices 12+ months in advance. They also have a craptonne of cash balance that Spirit never built up, so they are completely differently positioned to handle the fuel price shock in 2026.
Unions play a big part as well - in the US, there was a single Union negotiation on behalf of crew but Ryanair didn’t even recognise unions until 2017 and they still have a lot of national unions that they can pick and choose from. While I abhor Ryanair’s anti-union stance it does leave them very well positioned for survival compared to Spirit.
Ryanair have been overthrowing a lot of national carriers that had a LOT of inefficiency in it, whereas Spirit were fighting against large, federal/international carriers with much more heft to them, both to accept price wars and the handle connecting flights (something Europeans generally loathe and Americans accept). It means a lot of the international flights were fed by the airlines’ own routes, rather than Spirit.
Overall, completely different market place. Man, it would be interesting to see Ryanair enter the US.
I liked Spirit. Flew an evening flight from DFW to BOS once and sat in the back. Someone had a full sized hoola-hoop. People were crazy. It was fun.
Here I thought that that this war was a nothingburger. It claimed at least one victim.
Never heard of Spirit Airlines until yesterday. Seems people liked it due to the cheap flights.
Here in Europe we have Ryanair for that, but I always feel bad when the only decent price I can find is from Ryanair; they treat their employees like disposable garbage. They were banned from landing in Kastrup for some time because of this.
Usually if I have to pay a little extra to avoid Ryanair, I'll do it. I hope Spirit Airlines has a better reputation.
Kastrup
Copenhagen, for anyone wondering
Okay, that's kind of funny. Because I've flown Spirit Air, and fuck Spirit Air (the seats are deliberately designed to be more uncomfortable than usual).
But also, it's kinda sad because it disproportionally impacts people with lower income who need to travel on a budget.
But also, where can I buy their planes? I don't have any money, or a place to park them. I'm just curious...
They're not for sale. They just put new lipstick on all of the planes and a new airline will start up in 6 months or so.
THat is pretty much the MO for AMerican companies during financial crisis. They change name and carry on with business.
Gave up the ghost
If you were willing to play the game, Spirit was an effective way to fly cheap. I have a backpack that's the maximum size permitted for "personal item", never carried luggage to check in and brought my own snacks and drinks.
The leg space was atrocious but I'd get their emails to bid on exit row seats, bid the lowest amount ($5-$15) and often win.
I had enough points for a free one-way flight, but alas.
Same experience here. They were treated like a joke, but I never had a bad experience on Spirit. Out of the handful of times I flew with another airline, I had a couple bad experiences (and paid more for it). Fewer options is rarely a good thing so it's weird to see so many people celebrating.
I have a backpack that’s the maximum size permitted for “personal item"
I hate that air lines made this happen. Every flight people with 2 huge bags taking up the bins, taking extra time loading them, bringing all sorts of nasty food and making a mess. It used to be easy, a small bag under the seat (because there was room), and a bigger bag in the hold.
People are really stretching the limits of "one plus a personal item" where personal item should be about the size of a medium to small purse.
Spirit was the fucking shit. I booked a round trip cross country flight day of for $160. I knew the get down, backpack, pack light. Anyone else would have been $500+ I also got bumped into their BIG seats on one flight and it was phenomenal. I have nothing but good things to say about them which people are always surprised to hear. All the major airlines have become Spirit anyways with the whole basic economy being a thing and charging for carry-ons. Everyone nickels and dimes you, at least Spirit had a low base price. I will miss them.
I genuinely appreciated being able to do a round trip for under $100 all in including train tickets. Like you I had my own backpack, snacks, water and wore extra clothes. Going to miss those deals.
You can still pretty much do this with frontier
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Sorta of a blind shot, but does anyone here know where to look for their asset liquidation & auctions?
I can't afford an A320 but I'm sure they have some good tools, equipment, servers, etc.
Just an FYI
'Sorta' is a slang contraction of 'sort of' You don't need an 'of' after 'sorta'
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Maybe we could all chip in? I'd like a Fediverse A320.
Real shit though, a fediverse-based co-op would be sick!
I have an Ace combat license. I would love to fly one
I'll chip in as long as I can fly it -- I have 1000+ hours in flight simulator
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I'm not so sure.
The right wing would be instantly defederated from the rest while the left wing builds three identical versions that all say they wanna go forward while pulling the plane in different directions.
Everybody hates the huge central fuselage but can't disconnect from it without falling from the sky.
Most of the discussion focuses on snide comments between the slightly different wing designs while all the critical tail components are held together by 3 single selfhosting admins. Then one of them goes on holiday and the tail fin just disappears.
And then the flight attendant gets on the speaker and is like:
HI IT’S ME NICOLE, I’M THE FEDIVERSE CHICK
Then the plane erupts in a giant argument over if the flight attendants are being scammed, trafficked, or if they are the scammers or the traffickers.
And the pilots debate nihilism while the flight attendant asks if there's a doctor on the plane.
This is one of the single most accurate and succinct analogies of a tech space I have ever read, save possibly for the one that Neal Stephenson wrote about operating systems being car dealerships.
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