At the beginning of May, Spirit Airlines closed its gates, shut off its airplanes, and disabled their website from further use. The most budget friendly airlines to fly across the United States disappeared without warning. But, this may not be the end.

Many travelers were impacted by the sudden shutdown of Spirit Airlines, leaving many feeling like it was completely out of the blue. Those who had flown Spirit before the shutdown were left stranded, forced to pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars to work around their sudden change.

Travelers were not the only ones affected by the shutdown, approximately 17,000 employees were impacted by the closure of Spirit Airlines, leaving many without a job alongside the rising gas prices and inflation.

A content creator that goes by the username of hitherehunter (whose legal name is Hunter Peterson) is most infamous for flying Spirit for 24 hours straight and has proposed the idea of purchasing Spirit Airlines, stating, “If 20% of the 250 million Americans over 18 paid the average fare of a ticket, around $30-$40. We can buy Spirit Airlines.”

Peterson created the website Spirit 2.0 with that very idea in mind. Within mere hours, hundreds of thousands of people have pledged to donate $88 million towards the goal which crashed the website due to server issues.

Their prior audit on May 6, 2026 had calculated that over 200,000 people had pledged over $200 million; their most recent verified audits have calculated to be over 300,000 people, and over $300 million. In order to purchase Spirit Airlines the goal amount needed is $1.75 billion.

There have been reports from several analysts about Spirit Airlines being at risk of liquidation due to Iran’s fuel price rise. However, Spirit instead stated that they would operate normally and had no intentions of shutting down, which led many travelers to continue flying with Spirit after the company’s official statement was released.

In an attempt to hopefully keep Spirit Airlines up, the Trump Administration and Spirit Airlines had been in contact regarding a potential bailout, with President Trump having thought of purchasing the carrier to keep it up. Unfortunately, the bailout failed, which gave Spirit no choice but to shut down.

While Spirit Airlines seemed to be okay on one side, it has been suffering for the past two years without public knowledge. On November 18, 2024, Spirit Airlines had to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy after Spirit failed to merge with a popular airline known as Jetblue, leaving Spirit with a whopping $3.3 billion in debt.

Surprisingly, in August of 2025, Spirit Airlines filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy once again due to failed attempts to stabilize its financial issues after it came out of its former bankruptcy in March. 

While the failed merger was not the only reason for bankruptcy, an engine recall from Pratt and Whitney after a powder defect in the metal used in engine parts was noticed. Spirit Airlines forced several aircrafts to ground.

Through it all, Spirit Airlines managed to keep up its public image without any fatal or major crashes during their 33-year long voyage, with many hoping for its return in the near future. Considering the progress that has been put towards the Spirit initiative, we may have a chance of the low-cost carrier coming back in the near future.