No-frills carrier Spirit Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the company has announced.
As NBC News reports, Spirit has had a rough few years, characterized by growing debt, quarterly losses, and a failed merger with JetBlue.
The bankruptcy filing doesn’t mean, however, that the company is going kaput (turns out the Monopoly board game is a very poor teacher of economics). Instead, Spirit’s statement assures Wall Street that the company has secured a deal with bondholders, providing enough financing to keep Spirit in business until it hopes to emerge from bankruptcy in the first quarter of 2025.
Okay, but what does Spirit’s bankruptcy mean for travelers?
For the time being, not much.
In an open letter to customers, Spirit promises that normal operations should proceed during the financial restructuring.
“You can continue to book and fly now and in the future,” per the statement, and “you can use all tickets, credits, and loyalty points as normal.”
Expect any Spirit flights you’ve already booked to go forward as scheduled, especially over the busy Thanksgiving travel period.
Your frequent flyer miles and points still count, too. (Even if Spirit merges with a rival, those will probably carry over.)
Later in the winter, it is possible that Spirit will make schedule changes and flight cancellations, USA Today warns, as the company continues to address its financial issues.
In the event that Spirit alters your flight, you should receive notifications from the airline about your reservation as the scheduled departure date nears.
Just in case, it’s probably a good idea to familiarize yourself with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s new rules for delayed and canceled flights (the TL;DR: You’re automatically entitled to a full refund for a flight that has been canceled or delayed by more than 3 hours for a domestic itinerary).
In the longer term, the possibility of Spirit merging with JetBlue, Frontier Airlines, or another carrier could revive, especially under what USA Today describes as the “different regulatory environment” expected to arise after the departure of the Biden administration.
We’ll deal with what that means for Spirit passengers when we get there.