'Godspeed my friend': Inside the final hours at Spirit Airlines

Spirit Airlines kiosks at New York's LaGuardia Airport on May 2, hours after the carrier shut down. Leslie Josephs/CNBC BALTIMORE/NEW YORK — Spirit Airlines was hours away from its final flights Friday afternoon. Jeremiah Burton was hours away from his first. "It's my first time flying," Burton, a 45-year-old air conditioning and heating technician, told CNBC at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Friday, shortly before he was scheduled to depart for New Orleans to visit his daughter and her newborn twins. "To tell you the truth, I just went online and Googled the cheapest airline ticket," he said, adding that he paid about $500 for the trip late last month. He was scheduled to return on May 6. While Burton waited for his flight, Spirit was making final preparations to shut down overnight , ending a three-decade run that brought discount air travel to millions across the United States and as far away as Peru. Spirit canceled international flights on Thursday, to start, so travelers, planes, and flight crews wouldn't be stranded. The airline said it flew more than 50,000 people the day leading up to its collapse. Spirit bondholders rejected an 11th-hour bailout proposal from the Trump administration that could have included up to $500 million to keep the ailing airline afloat. The deal would have put the government ahead of other bondholders' claims and given it an up to 90% stake in the airline. …