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My name is Anthony, and I am a fan of Spirit Airlines (specifically its Big Front Seat™ now known as First Class). Unfortunately, the future is not looking too bright for the low-cost carrier. Without big changes, a merger, or some other lifeline it looks like Spirit Airlines might not be around in 12 months.
It’s no secret that the airline has seen it share of troubles over the past few years. It entered and exited bankruptcy, tried to reinvent its business model, appointed a new CEO and other executives, saw a judge block its attempt to be acquired by JetBlue, and rejected several offers from rival Frontier Airlines. In its latest SEC filing, Spirit noted that there is substantial doubt that the airline will be able continue as it is within 12 months. In other words, the carrier might not exist in a year.
As of June 30th, the airline’s cash and cash equivalents had dropped to $407.5 million (with an additional $275 million available in borrowing capacity). That’s a sharp decline from the $487.5 million it held at the end of Q1 2025 and it underscores how rapidly the carrier has been depleting its funds. Its revenue was down around 25.5% when comparing Q2 2024 to Q2 2025 ($1.28 billion to around $1 billion). Operating costs have also increased year over year. This has all raised concerns about its ability to maintain the minimum liquidity required under its credit card processing agreement and debt covenants. Falling below this threshold would trigger a default, which would potentially accelerate the repayment of its outstanding debt. Its current credit card processing agreement is valid until December 31st. A new agreement being reached after this date is in question.
All of this does not mean that Spirit is definitely going under, but something substantial is going to need to occur in the near term for the airline to regain its footing. It does not seem like customers are going to change their current preferences for premium products, but Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant, and others serve a need for passengers that cannot afford full fare tickets with the legacy carriers. While airlines like American, Delta, and United are selling a variety of cabins and fare classes, it has been the low-cost carriers that kept many airfares in check and afforded the tickets that were accessible to all.
Anthony’s Take: I think it’s going to continue to be a bumpy ride for Spirit. I’m hopeful that the airline can find a way as I enjoy being on board the bright yellow planes. We’ll have to wait and see what’s next.
(Featured Image Credit: Spirit Airlines.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
