Travel plans upended as Spirit Airlines shuts down, leaving passengers scrambling for other options
By Alaa Elassar, Gloria Pazmino, CNN
(CNN) — Terminal A at LaGuardia Airport sat unusually quiet Saturday morning — no lines at the counters, no Spirit Airlines staff anywhere, just a sheet of paper taped over a cardboard sign.
“We regret to inform you that Spirit Airlines has ceased global operations,” read the sign in Terminal A, where Spirit operated in New York City for years. “All Spirit flights have been cancelled, and customer service is no longer available.”
Above it, a departures board flickered with a string of red notices: nine Spirit flights bound for cities across Texas, Florida, Detroit, North Carolina and South Carolina — all marked simply, “cancelled.”
Saturday’s shutdown of Spirit — the pioneering budget airline that reshaped low-cost travel — has stranded thousands of passengers nationwide. The company canceled all flights, halted customer service and told travelers not to come to the airport. Customers are being issued refunds and instructed to rebook with other airlines.
Spirit’s collapse marks the first time in 25 years a major US airline has gone out of business due to financial trouble. The company, in its second bankruptcy, had been struggling for years and failed to secure a last-minute rescue deal, forcing it into an immediate wind-down after 34 years in operation.
As of 7 a.m. Saturday, a handful of passengers were still arriving at LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal A, where the confusion stretched from urgent family trips to long-planned getaways as more travelers arrived to find their plans unraveling in real time.
One woman and her elderly mother told CNN they had a flight to Charlotte for a family funeral and had not received notifications about their canceled flights.
Alexandra Merino, who had been planning a trip to Florida for Mother’s Day, told CNN from outside of LaGuardia Airport that she did not realize what was going on until she arrived.
“I just got here, and the people that were standing here just said, ‘there’s no flights, Spirit went out of business,’” Merino said, adding she hadn’t checked her email and didn’t know if any notice had come overnight. “We’re trying to get Expedia to book a new flight … Happy Mother’s Day to me.”
Nearby, another traveler caught off guard said he only realized what had happened after getting to the airport for a flight to Orlando, where he was supposed to attend his Master of Business Administration graduation ceremony.
“This is wild,” Danny Nunez told CNN, explaining that everything appeared normal when he checked his flight the night before. At a kiosk, he was told his flight had been canceled and to see an agent — but there were none. “(I’ll) try to find a way to hopefully make my school ceremony this afternoon, at two,” he said. “I’ll probably head back into the office right now and see what I can figure out.”
Emergency relief rolls out for passengers and employees
Amid the confusion and mounting disruption, other airlines are rushing to step in and fill the void.
Stacked behind a wall of digital check-in monitors were several news releases from other major airlines – Frontier, Southwest, American and United – offering assistance for stranded passengers looking to rebook their travel. JetBlue Airways and Delta Air Lines are also offering capped ticket prices.
A mother and her son lingered just outside the terminal doors, scanning hastily taped flyers listing phone numbers for other major airlines – one of the signs of help in an otherwise empty space.
The airlines say they’re offering capped “rescue fares” — most around $200 — to help stranded Spirit passengers rebook flights across the country, while American and United also included links to job portals for suddenly unemployed Spirit workers. But in the confusion and shock of the shutdown, few travelers appeared to notice, or make use of, the offers.
In a message to flight attendants early Saturday, the Association of Flight Attendants said, “We are delivering the hardest news of our lives that Spirit will cease operations at 3:00 AM Eastern Time on May 2, 2026.”
Flight attendants are now being sent home or back to their bases, with flights and hotels covered, according to the union.
“While the country has had a blast making Spirit the butt of the joke, we’ve built a strength together that could withstand anything that anyone throws at us. And that is no joke,” the union said. “This has been the honor of our life to fly with all of you and we are with you now. Spirit is in our blood and that makes us family.”
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X that the federal government is coordinating with airlines to “bring relief to Spirit customers and its workforce” following the carrier’s collapse, outlining a mix of capped fares, discounted rebooking options and employee support measures.
Duffy added major carriers are extending travel privileges for Spirit employees and creating hiring pipelines, including dedicated job portals at American and United.
“Most major U.S. carriers are extending travel pass benefits and spare jump seats to Spirit pilots, flight attendants, and other employees who need to return home,” a news release from the Department of Transportation said. “They have also offered Spirit team members preferential employment interviews to ensure they jump the queue.”
Duffy also reminded customers that Spirit will issue automatic refunds and advised passengers to consider credit card chargebacks, travel insurance claims, or bankruptcy filings for additional recovery options.
CNN’s Maria Sole Campinoti, Pete Muntean and Chris Isidore contributed to this report.
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