Spirit Airlines still believes merging with another company may provide its best bet for long-term viability.
The Miramar, Florida-based airline, now operating under its second round of bankruptcy restructuring in one year, says its best outcome “may be a merger or sale of the company”, according to a 14 October securities filing.
“Spirit is actively working to explore all potential opportunities,” Spirit’s filing adds. “The company is actively engaged in discussions with a number of interested counterparties”.
The news, reported by media outlet The Points Guy, comes as Spirit pursues a broad restructuring and after it failed in recent years to close two proposed acquisitions.
Spirit first, in 2022, rebuffed an acquisition offer from Frontier Airlines, choosing instead to pursue an acquisition by JetBlue Airways. But a US judge torpedoed the JetBlue deal in early 2024, on anti-competition grounds.
Since then, Spirit has floundered.
Under its first bankruptcy restructuring, from November 2024 to March, Spirit reduced debt and raised additional funds.
But losses continued amid weak demand for its discount product, prompting the airline to file for bankruptcy court-supervised restructuring a second time, in August.
That process continues.
This time around, Spirit says it is pursuing a wholesale transformation that will see it emerge as a viable business. The plan involves returning as many as 114 Airbus A320-family jets to lessors – halving its fleet in the process – while focusing on what it calls “proven routes and natural strengths”.
Spirit has said it will focus more on connecting flights, move its product upscale with more “premium” seating options, and work through costly and disruptive maintenance issues affecting the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G geared turbofans that power its A320neo-family jets.
Spirit in September said it plans to furlough some 1,800 flight attendants amid capacity cuts. It has also been furloughing pilots.
