SEPTEMBER 23, 2025 — 1,800 FLIGHT ATTENDANTS
The company plans to furlough approximately 1,800 flight attendants, about a third of its workforce, to reduce costs in its second bankruptcy in a year.
Spirit’s CEO Dave Davis last week warned staff about upcoming job cuts as the airline shrinks its schedule to reduce costs.
AUGUST 12, 2025 — COMPANY WARNS OF POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
In the airline’s quarterly SEC filing on August 11, 2025, the company stated, “The Company has continued to be affected by adverse market conditions, including elevated domestic capacity and continued weak demand for domestic leisure travel in the second quarter of 2025, resulting in a challenging pricing environment. As a result, the Company continues to experience challenges and uncertainties in its business operations and expects these trends to continue for at least the remainder of 2025.”
“We have already taken certain measures to address these challenges, including the implementation of network and product enhancements, including our Premium Economy travel option, consummation of sale-leaseback transactions related to certain of our owned spare engines, and other discretionary cost reduction strategies, including the pilot furloughs announced in July 2025. After considering the measures taken, minimum liquidity covenants in our debt obligations and credit card processing agreement require financial results to improve at a rate faster than what we are currently anticipating. As a result, we plan to take additional liquidity enhancing measures, which may include the sale or other monetization of certain aircraft and real estate, the sale of excess airport gate capacity, elimination of certain fixed costs and other transactions to raise additional liquidity. We are in discussions with various stakeholders related to some of these future initiatives. We are also in discussions with representatives of our credit card processor, which have requested additional collateral to renew our credit card processing agreement, which expires on December 31, 2025. The level of collateral required to be posted could result in a material reduction of unrestricted cash. While it is our goal to execute on these initiatives, there can be no assurance that such initiatives will be successful.”
“If these initiatives are unsuccessful, management believes it is probable that we will be unable to comply with the minimum liquidity covenants under our debt obligations and credit card processing agreement at some point in the next 12 months, which would result in an event of default (in the case of the Exit Revolving Credit Facility, if there are amounts drawn and outstanding under the Exit Revolving Credit Facility at that time), which could cause the maturity of our debt obligations to be accelerated. Because of the uncertainty of successfully completing the initiatives to comply with the minimum liquidity covenants and of the outcome of discussions with our stakeholders, management has concluded there is substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern within 12 months from the date these financial statements are issued.
“Our condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming that we will continue to operate as a going concern, which contemplates the continuity of operations, realization of assets and liquidation of liabilities in the normal course of business, and does not include any adjustments to reflect the possible future effects on the recoverability and classification of assets or the amounts and classifications of liabilities that may result from uncertainty related to our ability to continue as a going concern.”
JANUARY 19, 2025 — 200 EMPLOYEES
The company is laying off 200 employees in response to its cost containment initiative and reduced operations footprint.
CEO Ted Christie announced, “As you all know, we’re facing significant challenges with our business. The bottom line is, we need to run a smaller airline and get back on better financial footing.”
OCTOBER 24, 2024 — MAJOR TROUBLE HEAD
2025 will be problematic, as the company plans to sell 23 Airbus jets and cut millions in costs.
A recent SEC filing states, “As part of its continued strategy to return to profitability, the Company has identified approximately $80 million of annualized cost reductions that it plans to begin implementing in early 2025. These cost reductions are driven primarily by a reduction in workforce commensurate with the Company’s expected flight volume.”
APRIL 9, 2024 — 260 PILOTS
Spirit Airlines has announced it plans to defer Airbus deliveries and lay off 260 pilots as part of a cost-containment initiative.
The airline will defer the scheduled deliveries to 2030-2031. As a result of the deferrals, along with quality issues with Pratt & Whitney, it is furloughing pilots effective Sept. 1, 2024.
The airline is blaming the Department of Justice for blocking JetBlue from acquiring Spirit.
AUGUST 1, 2022 — CONFIRMED: JET BLUE ACQUIRES SPIRIT
JetBlue Airways Corporation has acquired Spirit Airlines for $3.8 billion to become the fifth-largest carrier in the United States. The deal was announced after Spirit and Frontier ended their merger agreement.
Look for headcount reductions in back-office and support functions as duplicative departments are eliminated in the name of cost-reduction synergies. This also extends to vendors who are not willing to shave their prices further.
JULY 27, 2022 — SPIRIT TERMINATES MERGER WITH FRONTIER. IS JET BLUE NEXT?
Spirit Airlines is continuing merger discussions with JetBlue after walking away from a merger agreement with Frontier Airlines.
According to Frontier Chairman William Franke, "While we are disappointed that Spirit Airlines shareholders failed to recognize the value and consumer potential inherent in our proposed combination, the Frontier Board took a disciplined approach throughout the course of its negotiations with Spirit. We were focused on offering the appropriate value for Spirit while prioritizing consumers and the best interests of Frontier, our employees, and shareholders."
MARCH 2, 2022 — Original post…
Denver, Colorado-based Frontier Airlines, an ultra-low-cost carrier is purchasing Miramar, Florida-based Spirit Airlines to create the nation's fifth largest airline and capitalize on economies of scale. Of course, the deal is subject to regulatory approval.
According to Spirit CEO Ted Christie, "This transaction is centered around creating an aggressive ultra-low fare competitor to serve our guests even better, expand career opportunities for our team members and increase competitive pressure, resulting in more consumer-friendly fares for the flying public."
Even with the happy talk about additional employees being required as the combined airline expands, that does not mitigate the risk to employees who are associated with duplicate departments or positions that will be shed to effect cost-savings synergies in administrative functions.
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?