Top of Mind Thursday – May 7, 2026: When the Spirit No Longer Moves Us

Last weekend, Spirit Airlines shut its doors for the final time—leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

While some press reports called this “sudden,” it was certainly not unexpected. The airline had filed for bankruptcy twice within a year and was known to be in financial trouble. A proposed government bailout didn’t materialize and that left no choice but to close down the low-cost airline once and for all.

What’s amazing to me, though, is the number of passengers who were shocked to find their flights permanently cancelled. Many of these people had bought tickets in the last few days, not way in advance of the financial collapse.

Spirit was known to be the bottom of the low cost flight options. Everything was an extra fee—including checked bags, carry on luggage, seat selection, and onboard snacks. Many of the fees wound up costing hundreds of dollars more than the original ticket price. It’s a wonder they didn’t install credit card readers on the bathroom doors too.

The problem was the model was never sustainable. We all want to get a great deal, but there’s a minimum cost to provide air travel that has to be covered for an airline to just break even. To stay in business, airlines have to make a profit above that.

A recent Spirit fare was $25 from Atlanta to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Even before the recent fuel price hikes due to the Iran war, no airline on the planet could afford to fill flights at that price point.

We’ve seen low cost, bare-bones airlines come and go before, including ValuJet, Hooters Air, ATA Airlines, and, across the pond, AirBerlin and WOW. Fighting to be the lowest cost provider in any business is a no-win proposition: You spiral downward and downward when competing on price until there’s nowhere else to go.

Yet even as Spirit departs, United is reconfiguring its cabins to include more premium seats. So obviously there’s a market for quality service, and people are willing to pay for perceived value.

Spirit may no longer move us, but quality and a great customer experience still fly.

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