CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Spirit Airlines is out of business, cancelling all flights, and leaving thousands of passengers stranded. The bargain carrier announced today. It’s shutting down operations effective immediately.
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Freddy Peterson, who lives in Shellman, Ga., was a flight attendant for Spirit Airlines for 10 years. He awoke at 3 a.m. Saturday to learn that the airline is out of business, with all flights cancelled.
“It was kind of unreal. I really haven’t processed it all yet,” Peterson said at the now-closed ticket counter at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. “I’ll probably do the beaucoup crying and all the other stuff once I get in my car.”
The ultra-low-cost airline announced that it’s winding down global operations, effective immediately. Spirit had filed for bankruptcy twice, most recently in August 2025, and had been financially struggling since the COVID pandemic. Then the war in Iran sent jet fuel prices rocketing.
Still, Peterson said, he didn’t think the shutdown would happen so soon. Flights were full and mostly on time, he said, and the company just opened a $250 million headquarters campus near Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He thinks the company could have communicated with employees better.
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“I just don’t feel like they gave the information out, the correct information to the employees,” he said. “I think if they would have had a town hall to let us know what was going on. They kept saying they were going to have a town hall, they sent us a QR code to get onto the town hall, and all of a sudden, the town hall was cancelled.”
He said he was on a full flight from Detroit to Newark just last night.
“It was kind of unreal,” he said. “I really haven’t processed it all yet. I’ll probably do the beaucoup crying and all the other stuff once I get in my car.”
The shutdown will cost about 17,000 employees their jobs.
“Well, what’s next for me? I’m going to process it all first of all, and then most definitely have to look for a car.”
Thousands of travelers have to adjust plans and find flights on other airlines, something Spirit says it won’t help them do.
But Atlanta-based Delta is offering discounted, non-refundable rescue fares over the next five days to help Spirit customers book last-minute flights. Southwest, American, United and Frontier are also stepping in to help Spirit passengers.
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