‘Godspeed my friend’ as the terminals went dark

BALTIMORE/NEW YORK – Spirit Airlines was hours away from its last flight Friday afternoon. Jeremiah Burton was hours away from his first.

“This is my first time flying,” Burton, 45, an air and heating specialist, told CNBC at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Friday, shortly before departing for New Orleans to visit his daughter and her newborn twins.

“To tell you the truth, I just went online and bought the cheapest plane ticket ever,” he added, adding that he paid about $500 for the trip late last month. He was supposed to return on May 6.

While Burton waited for his flight, Spirit was making final preparations to shut down overnight, ending a decade-long run that brought discounted air travel to millions across the United States and as far away as Peru. Spirit canceled international flights on Thursday, to begin with, so that travelers, airlines, and airline employees are not stranded. The airline said it was flying more than 50,000 people the day before it crashed.

The airlines have rejected an 11th-hour bailout request from the Trump administration that would have included up to $500 million to keep the ailing airline afloat. The deal would have put the government ahead of the demands of other bondholders and given up to 90% stake in the airline.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called Spirit CEO Dave Davis to tell him there was no deal and that Bonds and the government were far from a deal, according to a person familiar with the matter. The bondholders sent a letter to Moya’s board, confirming that the end was near.

Before dawn on Saturday, Spirit’s website and app posted a message that operations had ended. “To our guests: all flights are cancelled, and customer service is no longer available,” it read.

By day, LaGuardia’s Marine Air Terminal, an Art Deco facility that opened in 1940 and was home to Pan Am’s Clippers — and, more recently, Spirit’s home at New York Airport — was almost silent.

Cibo Express closed half a day early with no customers to serve. CNBC saw the last Defense Administration official sent home early. The screens in the arc of the yellow kiosks read: “We regret to inform you that Spirit Airlines has ceased international operations.”

“It’s been an honor to bring friends and families closer for 34 years,” it says on the bottom, via a QR code with the next steps.

United Airlines, Frontier Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airlines while others say they collect fares for travelers to go home. United said about 14,000 Spirit customers booked United tickets on Saturday. JetBlue also announced plans to expand its Fort Lauderdale schedule with a slew of new services to destinations ranging from Cali, Colombia, to Nashville, Tennessee.

Although things are looking up this week with the cash, Spirit’s problems have been going on for years. It was profitable in the 2010s and grew rapidly as customers filled flights. But it last made money in 2019.

The carrier has faced intense competition from richer, larger rivals Delta Air Lines, United Airlines again American Airlines.

Spirit has also been under pressure from rival fares, rising costs, a failed acquisition of JetBlue Airways that the Biden Justice Department successfully challenged, and engine failures that grounded many of its jets. Airlines have become increasingly reliant on high-spending customers who shell out thousands of luxury, luxury cabins. Recently, the increase in jet fuel prices caused by the war in Iran was a challenge that the airline could not overcome, it said.

Last August, Spirit filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in less than a year, and analysts say part of the reason is that it hasn’t done enough to restructure the airline, cut costs, and avoid tough decisions in its first filing in 2024. A few weeks before it hoped to emerge free from its bankruptcy, it faced an expensive fuel challenge.

About 17,000 direct and indirect workers lost their jobs as a result of the airline’s collapse, the carrier said.

“The pain of this decision will not be felt in the workplace. It will be felt by pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, freight forwarders, and ground workers, as well as the families and communities that depend on them,” wrote the international president of the Air Line Pilots Association, Jason Ambrosi, on Saturday.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, Spirit’s approximately 5,000 union, wrote to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, urging them to try to help ensure that flight attendants are paid and compensated for their earned vacation and per diem as the case continues in bankruptcy court. He also requested that they receive a supplement of $600 per week for claiming unemployment from the federal government.

“The unemployment rate is not a substitute for full wages, and this improved funding will help sustain families while workers find new employment,” she said.

Spirit had a US market share of about 4%, according to aviation data firm Cirium, but was a rare presence in the minds of many Americans — and on social media.

Henry Harteveldt, founder of the Atmosphere Research Group and a former airline executive, said Spirit was a “true pioneer” of discount air travel but still “the airline America loved to hate,” in part because of low fares, customer service issues, and spotty reliability over the years.

Spirit became a favorite of comedians. “The CEO of Spirit Airlines was like, ‘It’s $500 million [from the Trump administration] our planes might have two wings again,” “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon said last month.

In 2017, Spirit enrolled customer-facing staff at the Disney Institute, Disney’s leadership and professional training company, to improve its staff’s interactions with customers and make strides in improving its on-time performance.

It still had loyal fans and customers, right up until the end.

“With a two-hour plane ride, I can suffer a lot,” said Kara Snyder, 30, who works in health insurance sales. He said on the short flight from Florida to Baltimore, the lack of a bathroom and amenities didn’t matter to him. Snyder said he flew Spirit to Baltimore and was flying back to Orlando Frontier Airlines. “I tend to stick to budget airlines,” he said.

International flights to Europe or Africa are another matter, Snyder said. “I’m going to Delta,” he said. “I’m picking on that. It has to be Delta.”

On Friday evening at Spirit’s headquarters in Dania Beach, Florida, near its home base of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Spirit’s executive team was huddled in the war room, watching its last flights come in.

Earlier it was reported that at three o’clock in the morning on Saturday, the clock will run out on the airline and the fleet of bright yellow planes.

“Good luck everyone,” said an American Airlines employee on the Spirit flight, according to audio posted by LiveATC.net. “I’m sorry to hear what happened.”

One of the pilots on Spirit’s last flight, NK1833 from Detroit to Dallas Fort Worth International, just before touching down just after midnight Saturday, asked the tower: “Are there any other Spirit planes coming in after us?” There were 175 passengers on board.

“I don’t see anything,” said the controller. “So you might be the last one.”

He later told the pilot, “Well, it was a pleasure working with you guys and I wish you all the best.”

“Thank you very much,” the driver replied, according to LiveATC.

Wes Egan, an air dispatcher for nearly 23 years, told CNBC that he was working at the company’s Orlando facility late Friday when one of the airline’s pilots asked for information about the airline’s fate. Senior management had just notified workers there at around 11:30pm that work would stop.

He sent a text message to the pilot using a special cockpit system for warnings and other information.

“UNLEGALLY WE STOP FLYING AT 0300 EST 05/02,” said the message. “GODSPEED MY FRIEND.”