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by esseph
44 days ago
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You need to look at things like average distance and median distance, do some filtering for most common destinations (example: NYC to LA, San Francisco to Miami, Denver to DC, etc), fuel costs, but also operating costs. Salaries and everything cost much more in the US than they do in Europe. Cost Per Seat Mile is $0.07 for RyanAir and $0.12 for Spirit, not counting fuel. Spirit hovers around 80% capacity while RyanAir is around 94%. RyanAir's niche is secondary airports while Spirit was compeating with larger airlines at places like LAX where gate costs are higher. In 2024 to 2025 there was an engine problem that required Spirit to ground 40% of the fleet to deal with it. Meanwhile they still had to pay for those aircraft with no revenue. This caused a major hit to the financials for a carrier that already runs on thin margins. I'm sure there's more to it, but these are the larger things I've found. |
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Fuel obviously plays a big part. Guess they also got unlucky with the engines (though could they have made better choices? Perhaps a Franco-American engine company like Ryanair ? ;)
> Salaries and everything cost much more in the US than they do in Europe.
Doesn't that mean they can charge more? We're regularly told the USA is rich and Europe is poor, so the customers must be able to pay more.
> Spirit hovers around 80% capacity while RyanAir is around 94%.
Spirit could have gotten better at filling seats. Perhaps learning from Ryanair. Or is there some thing in the USA that prevents exceeding 80% capacity? US customers not liking planes beyond 80% capacity?
It makes me think their business surviving was highly dependant on low fuel prices? So the collapse was a shock to nobody in the industry?