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Spirit Airlines is filing for bankruptcy
- gnabgib 2y agoArticle title: Spirit Airlines Moves Toward Bankruptcy Filing After Frontier Drops Merger Bid (filing for!=moves toward)
- StressedDev 2y agoThank you for pointing this out. Article titles should not mislead readers.
- andsoitis 2y agoIn English, "filing for bankruptcy" can be read in two ways: the one is the literal interpretation of filling out the forms. But the other is simply stating the inevitable destiny and which is worth highlighting since it has many implications (for employees, airports, debt holders, shareholders, etc.). So I don't think the article title is intended to mislead.
- samtho 2y agoI would argue these are still distinct meanings: one has speculative implications the other has tangible results. Announcing a marital engagement may be important, but the marriage is not formal until the marriage certificate is filed. In the context of news, its important to get right.
- hatsix 2y agoNot sure which English you are referencing, but "Filing for bankruptcy" only means the legal/literal definition, at least in my 40+ years in the PNW. "Declare Bankruptcy" tends to be used more colloquially... Regardless of the intent, it is a misleading rewording of the original article title.
- happytoexplain 2y agoAs - I think - a reasonably experienced English speaker, I strongly disagree. "Filing for bankruptcy" is not a phrase used to mean "going bankrupt soon, but not yet officially". It's always used literally.
- dartos 2y agoThat’s just plain not true.
- zzbn00 2y ago"Filing" is distinct from "Filling". In this context "filing" means lodging the papers with the court, and that typically has an immediate automatic legal effect (the Automatic Stay).
- kylehotchkiss 2y agoTake Off A Human, Land As A Spirit. RIP. Thanks for all the laughs, Spirit.
- teractiveodular 2y agoI still have a soft spot in my heart for their "Many Islands, Low Fares" (M.I.L.F.) campaign. https://www.npr.org/2013/09/03/218625844/spirit-airlines-sees-business-take-off-with-raunchy-ads https://www.npr.org/2013/09/03/218625844/spirit-airlines-see...
- malfist 2y agoI mean, an airline hostile to it's customers enough to add an "Unintended Consequences of DOT Regulations Fee" is bound to turn away customers.
- aitchnyu 2y agoA smart carrier will name airport expenses as "cute fee" https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/travel-news/what-is-the-cute-fee-that-airlines-charge-a-flyers-inquiry-sparks-an-online-buzz/articleshow/112675037.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/travel-news/what-...
- ApolloFortyNine 2y agoWill be interesting to see if them declaring bankruptcy ends up being better than the blocked Jetblue deal.
- nickff 2y agoIn legal filings, the Justice Department claimed that the merger would result in "higher fares, fewer seats, and harm millions of consumers" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_Airlines#2022_to_2024_attempted_mergers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_Airlines#2022_to_2024_a...
- ajdude 2y agoAnd now the result is no fares, no seats, and millions of customers with less of a choice.
- rsynnott 2y agoI mean, presumably the shareholders will be wiped out, but the actual airline will probably continue existing in some form.
- ajdude 2y agoI'm not sure why I'm getting downvoted so heavily for this comment. Instead of giving two smaller airlines a chance to work together and compete against the "Big Four", denying the JetBlue merger all but guaranteed that Spirit would have to file for bankruptcy. The company's assets are worth more than the company itself so I wouldn't be surprised if it simply liquidates with the result being no fares (because no Spirit airlines), no seats (because no Spirit airlines), and millions of customers with less of a choice (because no Spirit airlines).
- justanorherhack 2y agoYou’re getting downvoted because it’s evidence against the prominent sentiment of government good, big business bad. How could to government ever make a mistake. The judges ruling was uneducated and poorly based, especially considering how the big four got to be so big. It was politically motivated to make the party/gov look good, but the long term results were good for nobody. I lost money betting on the merger, it makes no sense it got blocked.
- punchmesan 2y agohttps://archive.is/fy78P https://archive.is/fy78P
- itake 2y agoAre there any insights why? low cost carriers are successful in SEA and Europe. Why can't Spirit pull it off in the USA?
- randoglando 2y agoI saw a video stating that they couldn't compete once the main carriers introduced "basic economy" and the like, which brought their prices significantly closer to Spirit.
- eskibars 2y agohttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Pu3CXatsA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Pu3CXatsA TL;DR: several factors. - Fuel prices are up (for everyone) - Spirit having so many flights out of Florida has hurt them (climate change with heavy storms more common, and ATC staffing particularly bad in Florida, so operations has been harder) - Leisure travelers have been willing to spend more for luxury travel in the past couple years and Spirit doesn't have a real offering to that market segment
- teractiveodular 2y agoI don't really buy that last one: successful LCCs (Ryanair, AirAsia, etc) know their niche and their audience, and don't even try to compete outside it. Luxury travel has fatter margins but also demands way more overhead in everything (cabin crew, catering, cleaning, etc), so it's not compatible with the rest of the LCC business model, which relies on fast turnaround times and minimal services.
- standardUser 2y agoI think luxury is the wrong word. I have a hierarchy of US airlines in my head that guides my domestic airfare purchase decisions and Spirit is at the bottom. American and United are near the bottom too. I never fly first class or business class, so I'm always looking for the least miserable coach ticket. For me, that's Delta, JetBlue and Alaska. I imagine a lot of fliers think the same way and though their own rankings may vary, Spirit is at the top of nobody's list. And what's the difference is cost anyway? Maybe $40.
- nemo44x 2y agoTheir whole angle was that they could undercut everyone by betting that enough people are willing to travel miserably if they can save a few dollars. But the bigger airlines were able to adopt this in part and Spirit is now broke. But at least they made air travel more terrible.
- hrunt 2y agoPlanet Money did an episode[1] on People Express, a low-cost airline that sprung up right after deregulation in the 80s. The history of People Express as told in that episode mirrors Spirit. Once the major carriers decided to compete, it sunk the upstart's business. [1] https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1197960905 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1197960905
- insaneirish 2y agoIt's interesting how major airlines competing with them has made things worse for everyone. I have many times seen passengers ignorant about what "basic economy" means (or at least feigning ignorance) and it leads to passengers trying to negotiate seat swapping on their own, or gate agents getting involved when it's a young child getting separated. All of it leads to boarding delays, which leads to delays pushing back, which leads to sequencing delays for takeoff.
- crooked-v 2y ago> or at least feigning ignorance "Basic economy" as a category is only about ten years old, and most people don't fly much.
- wink 2y agoI am also not sure if it is uniform across airlines?
- ChumpGPT 2y agoDon't think it's even that. All they had to do was match or get close to Spirts fares until they drove them out of business. The major carriers don't need to collude, it's part of their playbook and apparent when they go after a route or market. AA, Delta, and United could afford to lose money on routes longer than Spirit could. It's a shame if Spirit doesn't make it.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> interesting how major airlines competing with them has made things worse for everyone It's been great for the poor and middle class. Tickets are cheap, before taxes and regulatory charges. Go to Europe and you see what competition can truly bring: <$50 tickets.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- itsmek 2y ago
- paul7986 2y agoMy favorite airline... flew 20 flights with them and all were the same experience as pricier United, Delta, etc (seats were a bit thinner but no biggie for me). As well I saved hundreds of dollars using Spirit by putting all my travel stuff/clothes in a book bag and sliding it under the seat. Which once it landed I was off the plane and out of the airport ASAP. Ive always thought that the pricier airlines have spent huge amounts of money on social media marketing to give Spirit a very bad rap using Tiktok, Reels, etc to create negative content about them. If half of such is true (ive seen the CEO of Spirit say something to that extent) their marketing dollars were unfortunately well spent!
- owenversteeg 2y agoThe US is very status-oriented and in recent years that has only increased. While I wouldn't be surprised to hear of a negative marketing campaign against the budget airlines, there are many millions of Americans that will trash the budget option to boost themselves by association. I think this was another headwind for the US LCCs that Ryanair and friends didn't have to deal with. In Europe, if you're an adult with a stable job and you fly Ryanair or Easyjet you typically won't feel you have to explain or defend yourself, but your average American counterpart likely will. No temporarily-embarrassed millionaire would be caught dead on a LCC without a good excuse.
- pb7 2y agoThe implied status comes from not subjecting oneself to the kind of people that have to fly Spirit. You're paying for dignity and not having to deal with screaming fighting people that will end up on viral videos. Europeans with adult stable jobs fly Ryanair and Easyjet because this is the best that they can afford on European salaries.
- sofixa 2y ago> Europeans with adult stable jobs fly Ryanair and Easyjet because this is the best that they can afford on European salaries. Nonsense. It's because they're sufficiently cheaper on certain routes, and when you're taking multiple trips a year, the price difference accumulates; and also because they have very good point to point service, so if you live in a non-hub for the national airline city - a Bordeaux, Lyon, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Köln, Varna, etc, your flight options are a flight with a connection in the hub, or a direct flight with a low cost carrier to a destination.
- ocdtrekkie 2y agoIf Spirit goes bankrupt can't Frontier just buy their stuff at auction prices?
- frenchman_in_ny 2y agoIt's likely a Chapter 11 reorganization, not a Chapter 7 liquidation [0]. So basically the equity holders get zeroed out and debt holders get some level of recovery in the form of new debt or combination of debt & equity. [0] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/differences-between-chapter-7-and-chapter-11/ https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/differences-between...
- JumpCrisscross 2y agoLet’s be clear about the timeline. Jet Blue and Frontier bid for Spirit in 2022. Spirit’s board said Frontier [1]. Lower price but less risky, regulatorily. Retail, however, chose the shinier sticker price [2][3]. Khan and pals, as expected, blocked; a judge concurred [4]. Jet Blue pulled its bid [5]. Then Frontier did, too [6]. Nobody was right. But a lot of folks were wrong, some more than others. It's a black eye for direct-democratic shareholder rights: the board made the better call. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-06-28/don-t-cheat-on-the-ethics-exam https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-06-28/don-t-... [2] https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/spirit-airlines-shareholders-vote-favor-38-bln-jetblue-merger-2022-10-19/ https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/spirit-airlines-... [3] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-07-27/spirit-forced-to-listen-to-investors-and-dump-frontier?re_source=postr_story_3 https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-07-27/spirit... [4] https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/us-judge-blocks-jetblue-acquiring-spirit-airlines-2024-01-16/ https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/us-judge-blocks-jetblu... [5] https://news.jetblue.com/latest-news/press-release-details/2024/JetBlue-Announces-Termination-of-Merger-Agreement-with-Spirit/default.aspx https://news.jetblue.com/latest-news/press-release-details/2... [6] https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/spirit-airlines-moves-toward-bankruptcy-filing-after-frontier-drops-merger-bid-5d492e80 https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/spirit-airlines-moves-...
- fakedang 2y ago[flagged]
- swores 2y ago> "Nobody was right. But a lot of folks were wrong, some more than others. It's a black eye for direct-democratic shareholder rights: the board made the better call." Is there actually enough information to conclude that for sure? Maybe there is, but based solely on the info you mention it could be the case that both options were equally likely to get blocked by the FTC, in which case choosing the option which offered a higher price was the better choice even though it didn't work out. Or maybe it was only 0.1% more likely to be blocked, while being significantly more than 0.1% higher price meaning a better EV even though both options had a chance of failing and a chance of succeeding. I feel like you may well be right, but equally may well be doing the equivalent of looking at someone who put a roulette bet on black and lost and concluding based on that single spin that the person who bet on red was more intelligent.
- xobs 2y agoI never did manage to fly them. Their website just returns " You don't have permission to access "http://www.spirit.com/ http://www.spirit.com/" on this server." Preventing customers from buying tickets isn't a good way to run a business.
- throwaway8754aw 2y agoHow many here flew on spirit knowing what to except via an Ultra Low Carrier yet had a bad experience cause they expected more (one I.e. ..expected same experience as on southwest where bags are free)and or as well what were your experiences. Mine were all great (enjoyed dozens of flights with them)..clothes & travel stuff in a book bag or sometimes in a vacuum seal bag then in book bag and stuff book bag under the seat. Saved hundreds and flew a lot more!
- spiritplumber 2y agoshould've done it a couple months ago so they could have rented space to Spirit Halloween
- Gabriel54 2y agoI've flown on almost all of the major airlines in the US and Spirit was always pleasantly better than expected compared to the horrible experiences I've had on other airlines. I don't see why people are bashing on Spirit. Flying in the US is uniformly terrible and there is no "luxury" option (unless you consider getting free peanuts or crackers with your $500 ticket a luxury).
- searealist 2y agoIt’s not the airline, it’s the other passengers.
- throwaway8754aw 2y agoCurious how many times have you flown Spirit?
- pb7 2y agoI've flown Frontier a few times and the most recent time they were delayed by like 5 hours (maintenance issue, no replacement plane) and once they finally started boarding, they plucked out like 40 people whose bags were "too big" and had to pay $100 at the gate so they can board with them. You have to have extreme contempt for your customers to waste even more time after you already wasted 1000+ human hours just on this flight alone, let alone all the subsequent flights that day that will be impacted because your operations rely on every plane being on time. No apology at any point either. Spirit is no different. They hate you and they make sure you know it.
- throwaway8754aw 2y agoI can vouch for Spirit. I've Never had any issue on Spirit and flew 20 different flights out of one of their hubs in Baltimore. Spirit no doubt has those crazy long layover flight u can choose which I've never booked. Heck no, just book their non stop flights. I can't vouch for frontier I've never flown with them ..not yet at least.
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- twelve40 2y agowhat a sad day for affordable travel in this country! my favorite trashy airline, so many memories. But then again, if it became Jet Blue, then it would also cease to be Spirit, right?
- lotsofpulp 2y agoI would have bet on JetBlue moving closer to Spirit quality than Spirit moving closer to Jetblue quality.