Spirit Airlines is slashing routes and jobs on a scale rarely seen in U.S. aviation, part of a bankruptcy-driven reset that is less about trimming fat and more about survival. The airline will suspend around 40 routes in November, pull out of entire cities, and furlough nearly 2,000 flight attendants. This isn’t network optimization: it’s an emergency contraction to buy time.
Massive Route Cuts: How Spirit Airlines Is Trying To Survive
The scope of Spirit’s retrenchment is dramatic:
- Suspending service to 13 cities in October, including:
- Albuquerque, NM (ABQ)
- Birmingham, AL (BHM)
- Boise, ID (BOI)
- Chattanooga, TN
- Columbia, SC (CAE)
- Hartford, CT (BDL)
- Minneapolis–St. Paul, MN (MSP)
- Oakland, CA (OAK)
- Portland, OR (PDX)
- Sacramento, CA (SMF)
- Salt Lake City, UT (SLC)
- San Diego, CA (SAN)
- San Jose, CA (SJC)
- Suspending dozens of marginal routes
- Furloughing 1,800 flight attendants (one-third of the workforce), plus 270 pilots, while demoting 140 captains
At the same time, Spirit has tapped Andrea Lusso, a former Amazon and JetBlue executive, to lead network planning. His task is not incremental growth but designing a smaller airline that can stop hemorrhaging cash and eventually attract fresh capital. Bringing in an outsider from Amazon Air and JetBlue underscores just how fundamentally Spirit is trying to rethink itself.
Analysis
Spirit’s problems go deeper than seasonal softness or mispriced routes. Its business model has lost oxygen. Pratt & Whitney engine issues have grounded aircraft and strangled utilization, while the Big 3 and Southwest blunt Spirit’s pricing power on bread-and-butter leisure routes. When Delta or United undercut base fares, Spirit can’t fall back on premium cabins or ancillary bundles the way rivals can. The ULCC model only works with an ironclad cost advantage, and that advantage has eroded.
That is why this reset looks different. Spirit is not pruning marginal spokes; it is conceding whole cities and shrinking its footprint to a handful of stronger markets like South Florida, Orlando, Las Vegas, and Dallas. This is an airline retreating to its redoubts and hoping Chapter 11 provides enough relief to renegotiate leases, modify engine contracts, and simplify subfleets. Without that, I see no path forward.
And yet, even as Spirit contracts, it is leaving the door open to a future rebuild. Frontier will move quickly into vacated markets, but Lusso’s mandate suggests a new discipline; fewer “why not” routes and more density where Spirit can still stimulate demand. As I see it, reliability will matter more than anything else during this time. If Spirit can rebuild trust by showing up on time, it may claw back some pricing power. If not, the cuts we are seeing now may prove only the beginning before the carrier’s ultimate liquidation.
CONCLUSION
Spirit Airlines is not just shrinking, it is betting its future on a smaller, denser, more reliable network. The job losses and route exits are painful, but the real test will be whether Spirit can use bankruptcy as a lever to reset costs and simplify operations, unlike its last round in Chapter 11. If the airline succeeds, it will re-emerge leaner and more competitive. If it fails this time, there won’t be a third chance.
Maybe do a bit more research. While exciting that they’ve brought in Andrea Lusso, he previously worked at JetBlue in Network Planning/ Scheduling for over 10 years and was only at Amazon for 9 months. Exciting opportunity for him to be sure, but he has only been at Amazon since January of this year. I think his 10 + years at JetBlue, including as a VP, is way more relevant experience than less than a year at Amazon, intense as that experience is known to be. I’m hoping for much success for him and for Spirit, as I like them and do feel that they’re important in the industry.
Fair point! And I agree – I’m rooting for Spirit.
Maybe AFA will protest and vie to destroy the company through “chaos”. ALPA is already beating the “Full pay till the last day” nonsense. They can return to realistic wages after Spirit pulls the plug and winter need to worry about any concessions.
Oh, they’re beating it alright. They’re all beating it together at the ALPA.
“ shrinking its footprint to a handful of stronger markets like South Florida, Orlando, Las Vegas, and Dallas. ”
Basically places white trash like myself fly to visit often. But since I’m white trash with money I avoid Spirit and am also routing for them. Because I don’t want their customers of any persuasion making American any worse than it currently is.
Sadly I don’t see them making it because any attempts that make financial business sense will cost them the customer base they have. In most cases they will just fly less or move to Frontier/Allegiant/Breeze.
An update as of October 1, 2025:
– granted $475M debtor-in-possession financing from debt holders
– reject leases on 27 Airbus aircraft from leasing company AerCap
– receive $150M for 25 of the the above 27 jets due to P&W engine grounding
– reject 12 airport leases and 19 ground handling agreements
– if D-I-P is approved, $200 million would be immediately available
– still plan to take delivery of 30 more airplanes in the [distant] future
– draw down the entirety of the $275 million in its revolver line of credit
– seeking $100 million in cuts from pilots union
– in the process of furloughing 1,800 flight attendants
More power & patience to Spirit Airlines in its relentless struggle for survivance!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün