Spirit starts monthslong process of dismantling airline after biggest collapse in a generation

A Spirit Airlines airplane at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) in Baltimore, Maryland, US, on Saturday, May 2, 2026. Daniel Heuer | Bloomberg | Spirit Airlines ' more than three-decade run ended over the weekend , but on Tuesday it was just starting the monthslong process of dismantling the company after the biggest U.S. airline collapse in a generation. Spirit and its stakeholders were in bankruptcy court in White Plains, New York, to start that process, which will take months. The carrier filed a cumulative wind-down budget of around $217 million, though that number could change. The budget went out to February 2028. It included more than $52 million in employee costs through July and another more than $52 million for aircraft-related expenses. The airline had 59 Airbus A320s in service and 63 in storage, as well as 37 of the larger A321s in service, and 13 of them in storage, according to aviation-data firm Cirium. More than three-quarters of its fleet was leased. Spirit shut down operations after years of struggles, most recently from heavy debt loads and a surge in costs. Spirit's lawyer, Marshall Huebner of Davis Polk, told a bankruptcy court on Tuesday that the jump in jet fuel prices following the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran in February left the carrier with no choice but to shut down. That added $100 million incremental costs for Spirit in March and April, he said. U.S. bankruptcy court in White Plains, N.Y. …