[gib444]

Definitely a good point about CASM. Thanks for highlighting. I do see it's one of the lowest in the industry though

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?

[esseph]

> It makes me think their business surviving was highly dependant on low fuel prices?

Basically.

The entire modern economy depends on the price of gas/diesel/jet fuel being between $X and $Y. If it goes outside of those parameters for too long, everything shuts down. Oil gets too expensive or too cheap to extract and refined and transport, then the money goes other places.