What the Ghost Airlines Implosion Means for Your Vacation

Why Is This Happening?

End of the Spirit was several years in the works. The company has not made a profit since 2019. Some aircraft, including large and heavy Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, entered its low-cost space by canceling tickets and offering their own low-cost and no-profit fares. In 2022, the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to block a proposed merger with JetBlue, saying the deal would raise prices for all carriers. In early 2024, after months of litigation, a federal judge blocked the merger. Then there were two refunds, one in early 2024 and another in the summer of 2025, with staff cutting Spirit, roads, and planes in an attempt to save itself.

Finally, the coup de grace: the Iran Wardifficulties in Hormuz Riverand rising oil prices—which alone account for more than 25 percent of the airline’s operating costs—made the operation unstable. As airline industry lawyers put it a court reservation Monday: “Recent global political events have pushed oil prices higher…

I have a Spirit Ticket. What should I do?

The spirit has said that it is Refunds only. Those who purchased flights through other websites should contact those businesses for refunds. But even before you’re refunded, “your biggest problem is rebooking,” says Katy Nastro, a travel expert at the website Going.

Rising jet fuel prices have made the coming season a tumultuous one: US tickets are up nearly 15 percent year-over-year, according to NerdWalletand other flights — flights to London and Hong Kong, for example, to the West Coast of the US — much further afield, Nastro says.

If you have a Spirit ticket, United, Delta, JetBlue, and Southwest all offer premium ticket prices. installation timeaccording to a report by the United States Department of Transportation. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines They’re offering low-cost fare on high-flying spiritual cruises, and Allegiant has said so winter trees on the paths that connect with the Spirit. Frontier offers up to 50 percent off its original price for those who have already boarded Spirit for a few days.

I do not fly the Spirit, but I fly. What should I do?

Same advice, says Nastro: Drive early to reserve. The routes that are left with limited seats after the Spirit has spoken can be very expensive. It’s too soon to say exactly how the non-Spirit airline business will affect ticket prices, but Nastro says in the short term, some routes could increase in price by 15 to 20 percent.

What Happens to Employees?

This weekend, several US airlines offered Spirit crews in need of assistance to skip seats to get home. Many have also given Spirit employees “selective job interviews,” according to the DOT.

In time, many Spirit employees will find new jobs in the aviation industry, predicts Ahmed Abdelghany, who studies aviation as a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s College of Business. “The power that Spirit lost will be replaced by other aircraft,” he says. In other words, some planes are faster (and to be to rush) to fill the airfields and corridors opened by the Spirit’s absence, and they will need workers to help them. However, some employees may need to move to new jobs or find work outside the airline business.

In a file for bankruptcySpirit decided to keep 40 employees three months after the shutdown—a sharp contrast to the 17,000 people affected by the closure.

How Do Airplanes Happen?

Spirit planes can’t keep yellow stickers, but weapons don’t. Spirit flew only Airbus A320s, an aircraft that is “very popular,” says Abdelghany. Eighty-two of the 131 Spirit ships were leased and will be returned to their lessors; the airline’s remaining 49 aircraft will be sold.

What is Ultralow Cost?

The forecast for lower prices in the US is not looking good. People used to bash Spirit — its low-cost approach to shopping, its BYO approach to water (it charged more than $4 a bottle), and its uncomfortable seats. But the airline was one of the dwindling few to offer one-way fares under $100. These budget airlines will only continue to operate if they can reduce their costs, says Abdelghany, which includes operations, maintenance, and fuel. Now that oil prices have risen, “you have no choice but to raise the price.”

In a world without the Spirit, there is little competition. If airlines are “fulling their planes, there’s no incentive to lower prices,” Nastro says.