Spirit Airlines Chapter 11: What new cabin crew furloughs mean for its future
September 23, 2025
Spirit Airlines has become synonymous with crisis. The Fort Lauderdale-based ultra-low-cost carrier has filed for bankruptcy twice in 12 months, issued repeated warnings about its finances, and now plans to furlough nearly a third of its cabin crew.
For an airline that once thrived on rock-bottom fares, the turbulence shows no sign of easing.
Cabin crew numbers to be cut by a third
On September 22, Spirit announced plans to temporarily lay off around 1,800 of its 5,200 flight attendants, roughly a third of its cabin crew, beginning December 1. The programme will start voluntarily from November 1.
According to Reuters, Spirit flight attendants will initially be offered six-month to one-year leaves of absence. However, the airline added that involuntary furloughs would follow if required.
The cuts mirror a broader retrenchment, with Spirit reducing its November schedule by 25% as domestic demand stagnates.
“We recognize the impact of this decision on affected team members, and we are committed to treating them with care and respect during this process,” the airline said in a statement.
The Association of Flight Attendants described the move as “devastating,” warning that further reductions could follow as management targets hundreds of millions in savings across labour contracts.
Pilots are already facing furloughs and demotions in a drive to shave $100 million annually from crew costs.
Spirit’s timeline of financial issues
The financial red flags began to wave at Spirit Airlines in November 2024. With dwindling cash reserves amid a fall in demand for domestic air travel in the US, the airline was forced to seek creditor protection under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code.
Management hoped the process would provide breathing space to restructure without creditor pressure. By March 2025, the airline emerged, rejecting a renewed merger approach from Frontier and claiming it was back on solid ground.
But optimism proved short-lived. In April, long-serving CEO Ted Christie departed. By June, Spirit was seeking to cancel future Airbus orders, citing mismatches between its fleet size and demand. In July, more than 400 pilots were affected by cost-cutting, with 270 furloughed and 140 demoted.
With its problems mounting once again, a significant blow came in August. The company issued a dire warning to investors over its immediate prospects amid growing market concerns that the airline was rapidly running out of cash.
The move came despite the airline pursuing its strategy in place to compete and survive in the increasingly competitive but plateauing US travel market.
In a company report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on August 11, the airline warned that without building up the necessary cash reserves to keep operating, the airline could run out of cash “within the next 12 months” and may not be able to continue operating “as a going concern.”
Later in August, Frontier Airlines announced that it would be going head-to-head with Spirit in 20 of its key markets, indicating that the Denver-based carrier had no sympathy for Spirit’s plight.
With increasing competition on a handful of routes on which Spirit had dominated, this news came as a further blow to the carrier and its hopes of recovery.
A second Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing
On August 31, Spirit filed for Chapter 11 again, an unprecedented move for a US airline within such a short period. Management insisted customer operations would continue as normal, with schedules, tickets, and loyalty benefits unaffected.
Spirit’s current CEO, Dave Davis, commented that the second bankruptcy filing would reflect lessons learned from the earlier restructuring, which “did not go far enough to fix the airline’s balance sheet and operations”.
Even in September, and since the latest bankruptcy filing, the bad news has continued to follow. At the start of this month, the airline revealed plans to cut its flight capacity in November by 25% compared to November 2024, according to a company memo issued to staff members.
The cuts come as demand continues to plateau, with the airline operating too much capacity and incurring operational costs as a result. The airline notes this move will reduce costs tied to fuel, maintenance, and airport fees, leaving it free to focus on its strongest markets.
What does the future hold for Spirit Airlines?
Throughout the past twelve months of turbulence for Spirit Airlines, the rest of the US airline industry, as well as industry analysts, have been observing the carrier’s moves as it struggles to survive.
However, with Frontier now encroaching into Spirit’s backyard on many routes, as well as United’s CEO Scott Kirby stating that his company had no interest in making an offer for Spirit or its assets, the future remains highly uncertain.
Having modelled itself as an ultra-low-cost carrier, the airline has struggled with rising fuel and labour costs, as well as high aircraft leasing charges. The airline has also been plagued by having a significant proportion of its all-Airbus fleet grounded due to well-documented Pratt & Whitney GTF engine issues, leading to operational difficulties across its network.
With its fares already some of the lowest in the market, the fall in demand for domestic US travel has been almost fatal for the carrier, wiping out any profit margins that may have once existed.
Whether Spirit survives in the longer term will depend on several key factors, but primarily whether it can retain the confidence of existing investors.
This itself will depend on whether the airline can come up with a credible long-term financial restructuring that will persuade the US bankruptcy court to give the airline another chance at survival.
If it succeeds, then the fight will still not be over, as the airline will need to claw its way back into what is already a highly competitive US domestic market, with competing airlines already circling.
