Spirit Airlines Files for Second Bankruptcy in Under a Year

Source: Bloomberg

Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy for the second time in less than a year after failing to turn around its cash-strapped airline.

The carrier filed Chapter 11 on Friday in New York, listing assets and liabilities of between $1 billion and $10 billion on a bankruptcy petition. The filing comes amid active negotiations with some of its largest lessors, secured noteholders and key stakeholders, the carrier said in a statement.

Spirit said in a subsequent filing that it had received a written notice of default Aug. 25 from its lessor AerCap Holdings, which said it terminating dozens of leases on aircraft that were scheduled for delivery to Spirit in the coming years. Termination would come at a cost of more than $2 million per lease for Spirit and apply to dozens of aircraft, the filing said. Spirit disputed the notion of a default.

Shares of Spirit pared a drop of as much as 55% after normal market hours on Friday, falling 46% to $0.65 before trading was halted at 4:30 p.m. in New York.

Spirit said in a letter to customers that the bankruptcy filing will not impact the airline’s operations and will have no impact on tickets or its loyalty program.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-29/spirit-airlines-files-second-bankruptcy-in-less-than-one-year?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc1NjUyNTI5NCwiZXhwIjoxNzU3MTMwMDk0LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUMU03SzJHUDlWRDUwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDNjgyQTUwQzJCRDM0MTFCQTgwQjEwQjZEQjczQzM1MSJ9.jVQOizQM1ioDd71Gy1U_COwM6FX-OXIk6r6whoIFmTA