After 34 years of offering low-fare services and a Biden era blocked company-saving merger, Spirit Airlines has officially shut down.
Customers will now be forced to rebook their cancelled flights and look for alternatives for their normal travel routes. Employees from the company are without paychecks and benefits, and may be stranded due to travel requirements for work. The good news for those impacted is that the Trump administration has already negotiated a plan to help those affected.
BREAKING: The US government announces a relief plan for Spirit Airlines customers and the company's 17,000 employees.
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) May 2, 2026
Details include:
1. United, Delta, JetBlue, and Southwest are all capping ticket prices specifically for Spirit customers who now need to rebook cancelled…
In coordination with our airline partners, we’re taking ACTION to bring relief to Spirit customers and its workforce.
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) May 2, 2026
From capped ticket prices for flyers who need to rebook to employees looking for job opportunities, there’s a lot of information you should be aware of.…
For the next three days, JetBlue and Southwest will be offering capped ticket prices to prior Spirit customers who need to rebook their previous travel arrangements. Delta is offering the same deal for the next five days, and United will continue it for the next two weeks.
For those who fly on consistent overlapping routes to Spirit, Delta and American Airlines are offering reduced fares. Allegiant has frozen fare prices, and Frontier will lower their ticket prices for those flights by 50 percent.
Former employees of Spirit will be able to return home with the assistance of major U.S. carriers, and have offered to give “preferential employment interviews” to those who have lost their jobs due to the company’s shutdown.
Democrats had hailed the blocked merger between JetBlue and Spirit as “a Biden win for flyers,” saying that the two companies joining would have been monopolistic and “would have led to fewer flights and higher fares.”
I've warned for months that a @JetBlue-@SpiritAirlines merger would have led to fewer flights and higher fares.@JusticeATR and @USDOT were right to stand up for consumers and fight against runaway airline consolidation.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 6, 2024
This is a Biden win for flyers! https://t.co/lJFGS3ucv3
“Yet another mess the traveling public has to inherit thanks to the radical policies of Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg. In blocking the Jetblue/Spirit merger in 2024, they turned their backs on the American consumer and our great aviation workforce,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.
“Regardless of how we got here, the Trump Administration is committed to taking care of you and your family when you fly,” he continued. “In a matter of hours, we’ve activated our airline partners to ensure passengers are not stranded, communities maintain route access, fares do not skyrocket, and Spirit’s workforce is connected to new job opportunities.”
The death of America’s largest budget airline is just another Biden mess that the Trump administration has been required to clean up.