FORT LAUDERDALE-HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) - Spirit Airlines has secured a crucial $475 million deal from several creditors as it enters its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy filling, a move aimed at positioning a future for the commercial airline.
The South Florida based airline is also in a $150 million agreement with AerCap Ireland, which is one of companies from which the airline leases its aircraft.
In an effort to reduce operational cost, the settlement will end leases on nearly 30 planes and will scale back flights at some airports.
After a bidding war in 2022, JetBlue Airways was set to buy Spirit for a whooping $3.8 billion after Spirit’s attempt to merge with rival discount carrier Frontier Airlines failed.
The deal with JetBlue had the potential of increasing competition for the U.S. airline industry, but ultimately it fell apart after a federal judge blocked the buyout of the nation’s lowest-costing airline.
7News on Wednesday spoke with frequent Spirit Airlines flyers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to get their reaction.
“It’s easy. It gets me where I need to go fast, and it’s very cheap and makes my life easier. I am going back and forth to Baltimore every two days,” said traveler Edward Smith.
“Honestly, I don’t think there’s any other really cheap options, you know what I mean? You kind of can’t beat it, and there’s a lot of nonstops, so all of that, like, I just feel like it would give everyone else a chance to monopolize over the industry, you know,” said traveler Alex Pittsley.
The move to scale back flights made sense to some of Spirit’s loyal flyers.
“First, analyze their routes and what the occupancy is on the flights, you know, if they have to trim down some of the flights so it will reduce some of the overhead, you got to be profitable on every flight,” said traveler Will Evans.
Other travelers are concerned it could lead to the normally cheap tickets going up in price.
“Honestly, it’s the cheap prices, otherwise I wouldn’t be taking it,” said Pittsley.
“I would miss Spirit. I love the, like, $100 flight anywhere. I think that’s the best part of Spirit, like, no other airlines is like that,” said traveler Xavier Phillips.
Overall, Spirit travelers are optimistic their preferred airline will continue offering travel-friendly prices.
“They’re becoming very guest-centric, that’s something that’s very important in the corporation business, it’s a people business,” said traveler Ray Delmont. As long as they support and they keep doing what they’re doing, I think they can pull it off.”
Spirit said it will “continue to right-size the business and to generate cost savings again,” as they navigate through a second bankruptcy.
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