US ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines has begun “an orderly wind-down of our operations,” cancelling all flights effective immediately and shuttering customer service, the company said Saturday in a statement carried by Newswire citing Deutsche Welle.
The collapse could cost up to 17,000 jobs. Customers were directed to the airline’s automatic refund process for unused tickets. “We are proud of the impact of our ultra-low-cost model on the industry over the last 34 years and had hoped to serve our guests for many years to come,” the company said.
Spirit blamed rising oil prices and “other pressures” for its financial position. The Iran war has driven US jet-fuel prices above $4.5 per gallon by the end of April — more than double the level the carrier had budgeted for 2026. The fuel shock has come on top of years of pandemic-era weakness; Spirit filed for Chapter 11 protection in both 2024 and 2025 and announced a debt restructuring deal in February 2026 that did not anticipate the war-driven price surge.
A last-ditch federal bailout fell through. President Donald Trump had floated the possibility last week, with US media reporting a proposed package of about $500 billion in taxpayer support in exchange for a government stake. “If we can help them, we will, but we have to come first,” Trump told reporters, conditioning any deal on its terms. On Friday he said his administration had tabled a “final proposal” but that no agreement was reached.
Spirit was once the largest low-cost airline in the United States. Its shutdown is the most significant US airline failure tied to the Iran war’s fuel price shock so far, and is likely to compound capacity strains on transatlantic and US-domestic routes already squeezed by Gulf-carrier reroutings around the Strait of Hormuz.
