Travel expert weighs in on Spirit Airlines shutdown

Spirit Airlines is out of business, leaving people forced to book extra days in hotels and try to get their money back for their canceled flights. While this may have come as a shock to people at the airport, Spirit has been struggling for some time. The COVID-19 pandemic hit Spirit hard, and those cheap flights began to lose money for the airline. By 2024, it owed more than $2 billion and filed for bankruptcy. Then, in 2025, Spirit filed for bankruptcy again. By that time, the company had racked up more than $8 billion in debt. Spirit tried to cut costs by laying off some of its staff. In 2024, Spirit had 11,941 full-time employees. By 2025, Spirit had reduced its workforce to just 9,699 full-time employees. Now, all of its workers are out of a job. A former Spirit worker received an email at 2:16 a.m. on Saturday informing them they no longer had a job. “Spirit Team, it is with great disappointment that we have started winding down our operations and have canceled all flights,” the email read. “Unfortunately, this means we are eliminating the vast majority of positions at the airline.” It goes on to blame rising fuel prices as the final factor taking the airline out. As for passengers, anyone who bought a flight directly through Spirit should be able to get a refund, but they are on their own when it comes to finding alternate flights. David Fishman, from Cadillac Travel, joined Local 4 Live to talk about what travelers need to know now.