After months of reassurances that it was finally on a better financial path, low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines (SAVE) has filed for renewed bankruptcy protection just nine months after emerging from Chapter 11 reorganization.
While the Florida-based airline is still running flights and allowing passengers to make new bookings with cash and points as usual, Spirit stock fell by more than 45% after chief executive Dave Davis broke the news on Aug. 29 with a statement saying that it “has become clear that there is much more work to be done.”
Earlier in August, Spirit submitted quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings revealing that leadership has “substantial doubt” about the airline’s ability to stay in business at all. News also circulated that a second restructuring was one of the other options being explored by Spirit.
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Spirit shares continue to tank in after-hours trading
When news of the second bankruptcy broke in the early evening of Aug. 29, Spirit stock fell by 45.90% in after-hours trading. On Saturday, the airline’s shares fell by a further 1.21% to $1.22. In May 2025, Spirit shares were at $8.28.
During the time of the initial SEC filing, Davis put out a statement that tried to downplay the airline’s financial troubles — at the time of the first bankruptcy, it had accumulated over $3.8 billion in debt — by stating that there was only “risk if we do not make changes.”
Related: There is another update in the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy case
“The team and I are confident that we can build a Spirit that will continue to provide consumers the unmatched value that they have come to expect for many years to come,” Davis’ Aug. 29 statement reads. “Spirit is a critical part of the U.S. aviation industry. We have saved consumers hundreds of millions of dollars, whether they fly with us or not.”
Since being delisted from the NYSE during the first bankruptcy, Spirit shares have been traded over-the-counter; amid efforts to privatize, it will likely disappear completely in the coming months.
Prior to the first bankruptcy, Spirit has similarly offered false reassurances that everything was looking rosy for the airline. But while the airline was able to emerge from Chapter 11 procedures last March by converting $795 million of debt into equity, the many cost-cutting measures it already put into effect failed to make a dent in multiple unprofitable quarters.
Image source: Veronika Bondarenko
Amid multiple false reassurances, Spirit future looks increasingly bleak
“We are proudly executing to our plan as we’ve exited the merger agreement with JetBlue and are encouraged by the initial results of our stand-alone plan,” Ted Christie, the chief executive who was eventually pushed out in April 2025, told investors during a shareholder meeting in June 2024. “We are not evaluating a Chapter 11 at this time.”
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Along with cutting multiple routes, Spirit has since the start of the year also furloughed or demoted over 400 pilots and replaced its longstanding base fare model with one in which passengers opt for fare classes with increasingly more benefits included.
Amid news of the second bankruptcy, Spirit flight attendants were warned by union representatives to “prepare for all possible scenarios.”
Related: Frontier CEO has blunt words on Spirit merger speculation
