[metiscus]

Spirit dying is going to mean prices go up substantially across industry. They provided a price floor above which other airlines couldnt raise prices without risking losing business to spirit. Usually the difference was pretty small, basically a market calculated fee for not wanting to deal with Spirit. But since their bankruptcies, in areas where they have pulled out, the other airlines have been seen to raise prices by something like 12-15%. I would expect similar or worse now that they're gone for good.

[altairprime]

An unsustainable price floor, apparently. Which suggests that it’s not the appropriate floor price, unless Spirit crashed for reasons unrelated to airport / plane / gate operations costs?

[verzali]

The sudden rise in fuel prices due to the Iran war seems to be at blame. If you have thin margins and didn't hedge, then a shock like that can wipe you out. Probably won't be the last.

[wlonkly]

It might've been the straw that broke the camel's back, but they've been unprofitable since the pandemic.[1] Mainline airlines introducing "basic economy" fares that weren't as no-frills as Spirit seems to have been a contributor.

[1] https://theaircurrent.com/airlines/spirit-airlines-trump-adm...

[altairprime]

‘Didn’t hedge’ because they set the price below the resilience floor and couldn’t; or because they paid out the good times to shareholders instead of resilience; or..?

[ramesh31]

>Spirit dying is going to mean prices go up substantially across industry.

Maybe, but the economics of budget airline service are solid, so we will undoubtedly get new entrants. What wasn't solid was Spirit's outright disdain for their customers. It was completely unnacceptable how they operated, and the market has spoken as such. Even Frontier has humans you can talk to. Being stranded by one of Spirit's constant delayed flights with no recourse but an automated chatbot should have been illegal. It reached a point where your stated departure time was really no more than a vague suggestion of the time window you might be leaving around. They pushed the trend of service enshittification to its extreme conclusion and people finally had enough.

[elteto]

Frontier has humans that you can talk to, for a fee. They charge $25 for going to the counter at the airport.

[throw-the-towel]

For someone who's familiar with both, does that mean Spirit was America's Ryanair?