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Spirit Airlines had a leadership shakeup today that has left many wondering what’s coming next. Ted Christie, President and Chief Executive Officer, is stepping down (effective today). He had been with the low-cost carrier for 13 years. Spirit’s board of directors is currently seeking his replacement.
The airline announced last month that it had exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was moving forward after only four months of restructuring. Under its plan, the company went private (meaning no more stock), $795 million in debt was wiped out, and $350 million in new money was pumped into the company. Spirit is still figuring out how to make itself competitive with the slew of changes to the passenger experience that it has announced over the past year.
In addition to Christie exiting, Matt Klein (Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer) is also departing. His replacement will be Rana Ghosh, who has previously served as Senior Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer (he joined Spirit in 2015 and has been in his current role since June 2024).
Robert Milton, Chairman of Spirit Airlines, said:
On behalf of the Board and the Spirit team, I thank Ted for his tireless efforts over the course of his 13 years at the Company. He has seen a lot and done a lot during his tenure here, including navigating the Company through the COVID crisis and multiple strategic junctures, as well as most recently, a corporate restructuring. Ted has kept the company together through challenging times, and for this we wish him all the best going forward.”
Many are speculating that these leadership changes are signaling that an acquisition is imminent. Frontier Airlines has been sniffing around for some time and has repeatedly made offers to buy Spirit. Frontier’s latest bid was reviewed by Spirit and a counter was presented on February 7th. Frontier rejected the latest offer (Spirit made on February 10th) as it was a bit too rich for its blood and would have required Frontier to cough up the aggregate value of the debt ($600 million) and equity ($1.185 billion) to be provided to Spirit stakeholders. Frontier had offered $400 million principal amount of second-lien debt issued by Frontier and 19.0% of Frontier’s common equity following the proposed combination. This was $50 million more than the last bid, but still a no go.
Anthony’s Take: While Spirit is out of bankruptcy protection and trying to chart a path forward, it seems like it will only be a matter of time before it’s troubles grow to become insurmountable. The CEO has exited and we’ll now need to wait and see what’s next.
(Image Credits: 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.
