A Spirit Airlines Airbus A320 taxis at Los Angeles International Airport after arriving from Boston on September 1, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Spirit Airlines on Friday filed for bankruptcy safety, simply months after the funds provider did not safe higher monetary footing when it got here out of Chapter 11 safety in March.
Spirit debtholders agreed in its earlier bankruptcy, which started in November, to trade debt for fairness, however the provider avoided bigger changes to chop prices, like eliminating planes or extra dramatically shrinking the provider’s footprint.
In a court docket submitting in December, Spirit had forecast a web revenue of $252 million this yr. But earlier this month, it mentioned it as a substitute misplaced practically $257 million since March 13, after it exited Chapter 11, by way of the top of June.
The Dania Beach, Florida-based airline mentioned below this bankruptcy, it’s going to cut back its community and shrink its fleet, cuts that it mentioned will cut back prices by “hundreds of millions of dollars” a yr.
“Since emerging from our previous restructuring, which was targeted exclusively on reducing Spirit’s funded debt and raising equity capital, it has become clear that there is much more work to be done and many more tools are available to best position Spirit for the future,” Spirit CEO Dave Davis mentioned in a information launch on Friday.
Spirit had simply gotten out of bankruptcy in March after 4 months, solely to be dragged down by continued excessive prices and weaker U.S. home demand. The provider had struggled for years because it handled a glut of U.S. flights, a Pratt & Whitney engine recall and a failed takeover by JetBlue Airways, a deal that was blocked in court docket.
Spirit’s plane lessors had reached out to rival airways in latest weeks to gauge executives’ curiosity in a few of the provider’s planes, in line with individuals conversant in the matter.
Spirit is the United States’ largest funds airline, adopted intently by rival (*11*)Frontier Airlines which has tried and did not merge with Spirit repeatedly since 2022. Frontier on Tuesday introduced 20 new routes that compete with Spirit to win over its struggling competitor’s clients.