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.
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