A Spirit Airlines plane sits parked at Hollywood Burbank Airport in California, April 16, 2026.Justin Sullivan | Getty ImagesSpirit Airlines struggled for years, battered by larger, cash-rich airlines that copied its business model as well as by failed mergers, higher costs and, most recently, a surge in jet fuel prices because of the war in Iran. It then faced the most unforgiving foe: time.”We just kind of ran out of runway,” CEO Dave Davis said in an interview with CNBC on Monday.Spirit had hoped to exit bankruptcy, its second in less than a year, in mid-2026. Four days before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, a conflict that has sent fuel prices skyrocketing, Davis said he and his team were optimistic that the exit strategy could still work. But that was contingent on fuel prices moderating in April.They didn’t. “Late March, early April, it became clear that it was going to be tough for us to get through,” Davis said, noting that crude oil prices were above $100 a barrel.Time’s upOther airlines leave printed instructions for travelers affected by the Spirit Airlines shut down at LaGuardia Airport’s Marine Air Terminal in New York on May 2, 2026.Leslie Josephs/CNBCTo try to save the company from collapsing, Davis and others inside Spirit talked to the Trump administration about a bailout.”We got connected with some various folks in government, including [Commerce] Secretary [Howard] Lutnick, through some contacts,” he said. “These guys … particularly Commerce, very eager to help.”The Trump administration had been working on an offer for a $500 million loan to keep the airline afloat in a plan that could have given the U.S. government an up to 90% stake in the carrier. Bondholders weren’t on board and floated a counter proposal. “Our bondholders also worked very hard to try to get something done,” Davis said. The two sides were far apart on deal terms and it was clear by Thursday that it wasn’t going to work.”I think we just ran out of time,” he said.Spirit said some 17,000 people, both direct and indirect airline workers, lost their jobs in the airline’s collapse. Other carriers, smelling blood, had been circling for nearly a year if not longer, and within hours of the airline’s collapse were scrambling to both fly ticketed Spirit customers and add to their schedules in the absence left by Spirit’s yellow planes.What’s next?A Spirit Airlines poster on a LaGuardia Airport shuttle bus the day the airline shut down.Leslie Josephs/CNBCSpirit hired longtime airline executive Davis, most recently chief financial officer at Sun Country, in April 2025, about a month after the company zipped out of its first bankruptcy. Critics said it avoided bigger changes in that first bankruptcy, like shedding more assets to get costs down.Last August, the airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection again, facing many of the same problems, though it had slashed flights, gotten rid of some of its Airbus jets and furloughed crew members to save cash.Davis previously worked at Northwest Airlines, …
