An ultra-low-cost airline has approached the Trump administration for a pricey emergency bailout as it teeters on the edge of liquidation amid soaring fuel costs triggered by the president’s war in Iran.
Spirit Airlines is reportedly seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from the government. The airline is "looking for a lifeline‚” a source told CBS News. Spirit is one of several lower-cost U.S. airlines whose executives are meeting next week with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to assess the strength of the nation’s smaller carriers, The Air Current reported.
Some Spirit customers are already scrambling to make alternative flight arrangements, as they fear the airline could shut its doors within days, noted CNBC. “Spirit is flying on financial fumes,” airline industry analyst Henry Harteveldt told CBS.
The airline, based in Dania Beach, Florida, seemed to be edging back to health in the wake of its second bankruptcy in a year after shrinking its fleet and coverage area, furloughing pilots and other workers, and trimming pay. It reached a deal with its creditors in February to shave billions of dollars from what it owed.
Then Trump launched the war in Iran, sending jet fuel prices skyrocketing. Fuel accounts for more than 40 percent of an airline’s operating costs. Jet fuel prices were up some 95 percent since the start of the Iran war in a survey from early April of costs in Chicago, Houston, New York, and Los Angeles.
For years, Spirit was a money-making machine, but it was hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic, passengers’ growing preference for more comfortable travel, and an oversupply of domestic flights. It had planned to emerge from bankruptcy this summer.
Neither Spirit nor the White House has officially commented on the situation.
