Spirit Airlines files for bankruptcy
Spirit Airlines has filed for bankruptcy protection amid a long run of quarterly losses and significant debt, the air carrier disclosed today.
Despite being America's biggest budget airline, Spirit's last annual profit was in 2019. The no-frills airline lost more than $2.5billion since the start of 2020 and faces looming debt payments totaling more than $1billion over the next year.
The company has struggled to recover since the Covid-19 pandemic nearly shut down the airline industry and was hard hit again when problems with RTX's Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan (GTF) engines grounded many of its aircraft.
But Spirit's woes deepened even more in January after the collapse of its $3.8billion planned merger with JetBlue Airways.
The company has now filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York, but says it will continue to operate while it restructures its debt.