Spirit Airlines has closed, bringing an end to years of financial troubles for the American low-cost carrier.

Its parent company, Spirit Aviation Holdings, Inc., announced Friday that it has begun an “orderly wind-down of operations,” effective immediately, cancelling all flights and advising passengers not to go to the airport.
The decision follows months of restructuring negotiations and comes amid sharply rising fuel prices that the company said ultimately made survival impossible.

Unlike airlines in Europe that followed a similar low-cost model, Spirit did not hedge fuel costs, meaning the already struggling carrier was left in an untenable position when fuel prices jumped in March.
“Unfortunately, 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 said in a statement. “With no additional funding available to the Company, Spirit had no choice but to begin this wind-down.”
Founded in the early 1990s, Spirit helped pioneer the ultra-low-cost airline model in the U.S., offering stripped-down fares that expanded access to air travel for millions of customers. But in recent years the carrier had struggled with mounting debt, operational challenges and volatile fuel costs, even as it sought strategic transactions and financial restructuring to remain viable.

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“For more than 30 years, Spirit Airlines has played a pioneering role in making travel more accessible and bringing people together while driving affordability across the industry,” said Dave Davis, Spirit’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “In March 2026, we reached an agreement with our bondholders on a restructuring plan that would have allowed us to emerge as a go-forward business.”
That plan, however, collapsed as fuel prices spiked in recent weeks.
“The sudden and sustained rise in fuel prices in recent weeks ultimately has left us with no alternative but to pursue an orderly wind-down of the Company,” Davis said. “Sustaining the business required hundreds of millions of additional dollars of liquidity that Spirit simply does not have and could not procure. This is tremendously disappointing and not the outcome any of us wanted.”

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All Spirit flights have been cancelled, and the airline said it is working to minimize disruption for customers through the wind-down and bankruptcy process. Refunds will be automatically processed for tickets purchased directly from Spirit using credit or debit cards, with funds returned to the original form of payment. Customers who booked through travel agents are being directed to contact those agents directly.