Created America's first ultra-low-cost carrier by unbundling everything—bags, seats, snacks—and generating 40% of revenue from fees. Counterpositioned perfectly against legacy carriers stuck with bundled service models. By 2015, Spirit had higher margins than any U.S. airline.
Competitors didn't stand still. Legacy carriers launched basic economy fares, targeting Spirit's customers while keeping premium revenue. Other ultra-low-cost carriers like Frontier copied the model on the same routes. Spirit tried to grow aggressively—adding a third more capacity since 2019—but years of underinvestment caught up. Infrastructure built for 50 planes was running 167.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy twice—November 2024 and August 2025. Shrinking from 200 planes to potentially half that. The ultra-low-cost model that once dominated is now fighting for survival.
