A huge blow to travelers, but not a big surprise if the U.S. government doesn’t step in to bail them out, is that the ailing budget airline Spirit Airlines may be going out of business. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Spirit Airlines is preparing to cease operations.”
There was talk after Donald Trump said he thought the U.S. government should step in and buy the failing airline (see embedded video below), but many aviation experts, including Sean Duffy, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, have said that would be a bad idea. I agree.Trump says the US may BUY OUT failing Spirit Airlines “virtually DEBT FREE,” to save 18K workers
“We may just buy it! They have some good aircraft and some good assets…when the price of oil goes down, we could sell it for a profit.” 👀 pic.twitter.com/vyn9yES1fv
— James A Stamulis (@stamulis_james) April 25, 2026
The New York Times is reporting that “a Spirit spokeswoman declined to comment, but said that the airline was operating normally.” So it’s not clear when the company might stop flying or what that would mean for Spirit’s customers.
When Spirit Airlines does go out of business, other airlines might offer free or discounted tickets to stranded travelers, but you can’t count on it.
I know from past airline shutdowns that it can be a real hassle to get your money back. Hopefully you paid with a credit card and can dispute the charge, or you purchased a travel insurance policy that would reimburse you.
I suspect that the WSJ reporting is accurate and that things could unravel very quickly, possibly before the end of the day. So get busy booking backup flights on other carriers, as there will likely be a huge influx of travelers scrambling, especially from major gateways like Fort Lauderdale.
With Spirit out of business, airfares in the markets they served will likely jump, as the low-cost airline helped keep prices down by increasing competition. That’s not just theory. Data shows that when Spirit leaves a market, fares typically rise, sometimes significantly, because competitors no longer have to match ultra-low prices.
