Spirit Airlines, a no-frills operation that provides trips from Atlantic City Airport to Florida for many residents of New Jersey’s coastal communities, has filed for bankruptcy a second time.
Spirit filed for bankruptcy the first time in November 2024 and emerged from that filing in February with its debt restructured. At the November filing the airline said it had lost $2.2 billion since 2020.
Spirit offers more than 5,000 flights to destinations in the U.S., Caribbean and Central and South America. The airline is known for its yellow planes that fly mostly to destinations in Florida.
During its first restructuring Spirit rebuffed takeover bids from both Frontier and JetBlue. Whether the airline will be able to avoid such efforts again is unclear. Its relatively young fleet of planes help make it an attractive takeover candidate.
An August quarterly report by its parent company, Spirit Aviation Holdings, stated that the company had “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a going concern in the next year. The public position of the airline is that business will continue as normal as it enters its second restructuring.
The recent news that Allegiant Airlines will fly routes between Atlantic City Airport and Florida helps to lower the vulnerability of the airport should Spirit reduce or eliminate flights. Allegiant, founded in 1997, is another low-cost airline focused on travel between small- and medium-sized cities and non-hub regional airports.
On Aug. 13 Allegiant announced it would service four routes to Florida out of Atlantic City Airport, to Fort Lauderdale, St. Petersburg, Sanford and Punta Gorda.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
