Terminal A at LaGuardia Airport sat unusually quiet Saturday morning — no strains on the counters, no Spirit Airlines workers wherever, only a sheet of paper taped over a cardboard signal.
“We regret to inform you that Spirit Airlines has ceased global operations,” learn the check in Terminal A, the place Spirit operated in New York City for years. “All Spirit flights have been cancelled, and customer service is no longer available.”
Above it, a departures board flickered with a string of crimson notices: 9 Spirit flights certain for cities throughout Texas, Florida, Detroit, North Carolina and South Carolina — all marked merely, “cancelled.”
Saturday’s shutdown of Spirit — the pioneering price range airline that reshaped low-cost journey — has stranded thousands of passengers nationwide. The firm canceled all flights, halted customer support and advised vacationers to not come to the airport. Customers are being issued refunds and instructed to rebook with other airways.
Spirit’s collapse marks the first time in 25 years a serious US airline has gone out of enterprise attributable to monetary hassle. The firm, in its second chapter, had been struggling for years and did not safe a last-minute rescue deal, forcing it into an instantaneous wind-down after 34 years in operation.
As of seven a.m. Saturday, a handful of passengers have been nonetheless arriving at LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal A, the place the confusion stretched from pressing household journeys to long-planned getaways as extra vacationers arrived to search out their plans unraveling in actual time.
One girl and her aged mom advised NCS they’d a flight to Charlotte for a household funeral and had not acquired notifications about their canceled flights.
Alexandra Merino, who had been planning a visit to Florida for Mother’s Day, advised NCS from exterior of LaGuardia Airport that she didn’t understand what was happening till she arrived.
“I just got here, and the people that were standing here just said, ‘there’s no flights, Spirit went out of business,’” Merino mentioned, including she hadn’t checked her e mail and didn’t know if any discover had come in a single day. “We’re trying to get Expedia to book a new flight … Happy Mother’s Day to me.”
Spirit Airlines passengers at LaGuardia Airport inform NCS they’re confused by shutdown
Nearby, one other traveler caught off guard mentioned he solely realized what had occurred after attending to the airport for a flight to Orlando, the place he was alleged to attend his Master of Business Administration commencement ceremony.
“This is wild,” Danny Nunez advised NCS, explaining that all the pieces appeared regular when he checked his flight the night time earlier than. At a kiosk, he was advised his flight had been canceled and to see an agent — however there have been none. “(I’ll) try to find a way to hopefully make my school ceremony this afternoon, at two,” he mentioned. “I’ll probably head back into the office right now and see what I can figure out.”
Emergency aid rolls out for passengers and staff
Amid the confusion and mounting disruption, other airways are speeding to step in and fill the void.
Stacked behind a wall of digital check-in screens have been a number of information releases from other main airways – Frontier, Southwest, American and United – providing help for stranded passengers trying to rebook their journey. JetBlue Airways and Delta Air Lines are additionally providing capped ticket costs.
A mom and her son lingered simply exterior the terminal doorways, scanning swiftly taped flyers itemizing telephone numbers for other main airways – one of many indicators of assist in an in any other case empty area.
The airways say they’re providing capped “rescue fares” — most round $200 — to assist stranded Spirit passengers rebook flights throughout the nation, whereas American and United additionally included hyperlinks to job portals for out of the blue unemployed Spirit employees. But within the confusion and shock of the shutdown, few vacationers appeared to note, or make use of, the gives.
In a message to flight attendants early Saturday, the Association of Flight Attendants mentioned, “We are delivering the hardest news of our lives that Spirit will cease operations at 3:00 AM Eastern Time on May 2, 2026.”
Flight attendants are actually being despatched residence or again to their bases, with flights and motels coated, in keeping with the union.
“While the country has had a blast making Spirit the butt of the joke, we’ve built a strength together that could withstand anything that anyone throws at us. And that is no joke,” the union mentioned. “This has been the honor of our life to fly with all of you and we are with you now. Spirit is in our blood and that makes us family.”
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X that the federal authorities is coordinating with airways to “bring relief to Spirit customers and its workforce” following the service’s collapse, outlining a mixture of capped fares, discounted rebooking options and worker help measures.
Duffy added main carriers are extending journey privileges for Spirit staff and creating hiring pipelines, together with devoted job portals at American and United.
“Most major U.S. carriers are extending travel pass benefits and spare jump seats to Spirit pilots, flight attendants, and other employees who need to return home,” a news release from the Department of Transportation mentioned. “They have also offered Spirit team members preferential employment interviews to ensure they jump the queue.”
Duffy additionally reminded clients that Spirit will difficulty computerized refunds and suggested passengers to think about bank card chargebacks, journey insurance coverage claims, or chapter filings for extra restoration options.
NCS’s Maria Sole Campinoti, Pete Muntean and Chris Isidore contributed to this report.