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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.
One of the best flights I've ever taken was Spirit and had 8 passengers on it, 5 of which were transferring staff/pilots. The second worst flight I've ever had the pleasure of enduring was also Spirit - the worst was Easyjet (simply because their seat dimensions are somehow smaller than the average human and generally incompatible with human physiology), and third worst was Ryanair because a mass of orange colored Brits are with near a unlimited supply of duty free gin is... amusing enough to move it up a few notches.
I actually flew Spirit for the first time yesterday, coming home from a week in Las Vegas.
There were 20+ "deadhead" flight attendants on board. I assume Spirit was rushing to get them all home. All in all, it wasn't a bad flight, the flight attendants who were working the flight seemed cheerful enough, even though I'm sure they knew they may be unemployed soon. (Presumably management gave them strict orders to not discuss the state of things)
Of course they still charged me $20+ for a soda and a couple of snacks lol.
Fair point. The JetBlue merger block was a pretty big deal -- DOJ arguing it would hurt budget travel competition, and they won. Spirit never recovered from that limbo. The antitrust angle is genuinely relevant here, not off-topic throat-clearing.
Fair point, but the antitrust block actually spared JetBlue from taking on Spirit's debt load. Would Spirit have survived the merger? Or were they already terminal regardless, which kind of undercuts the "antitrust won" framing.
Spirit was like Ryan Air, the bus of the sky, but their main benefit for me was that they flew from smaller airports. About the same distance away from me are Philadelphia International (PHL) and Atlantic City Airport (ACY). PHL is always a production, with either expensive parking or parking in Narnia. It's crowded, expensive, and security lines are dicey.
At Atlantic City airport I could park in an economy lot and just drag my luggage into the terminal. There were short security lines, and the airport was small enough that if anyone was running late for their flight they'd send them through first. I was able to trade having to rid an bus in the air for a much easier time going through the airport. IDK that anyone else will fill in there. Only other flights are American, just flying from Philly.
Frontier wouldn't refund or give me credit for my one-way flight even after I gave them paperwork showing I had recently tested positive for COVID-19. They didn't dispute the results either, just said that 48 hours wasn't enough notice. Sorry I didn't get sick earlier? Suffice to say I would never fly Frontier again
Hello! This is Moscow calling. What are you doing with these planes of yours now? Can you pass them under the table for an unspecified amount? Regards £ wishes!
Spirit's fleet was roughly 200 planes. The big carriers will absorb those routes quickly. Supply-demand logic applies when there's a real capacity reduction - this barely registers at the national level.
Amtrak's Cascades runs Boston to DC and the ridership uptick after airline disruptions is measurable, but it doesn't translate to political will for actual HSR. Fewer budget airlines would probably just push people to drive, not lobby Congress for rail.
Saw the same thing happen to PeopleExpress in '86. Ultra-low cost carriers burn bright, then the legacies just wait them out and absorb the routes. Allegiant's probably next to feel pressure. The price floor argument is real but temporary.
