Spirit Airlines chaos could be big loss for budget travelers as they fight for answers

Spirit Airlines' sudden shutdown ahead of the summer travel season is stoking fears of higher fares — and raising questions about what comes next.

The airline, which had more than 4,000 domestic flights scheduled ​through May 15, abruptly halted all flights on Saturday morning.

"This is tremendously disappointing and not the outcome any of us wanted," Spirit CEO Dave Davis said in a company statement.

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"All flights booked with credit and debit cards are in the process of being automatically refunded," a spokesperson for Spirit previously told FOX Business. 

"The majority of guests who booked travel on a credit or debit card were refunded as of Saturday evening, with a small percentage continuing to process. Refunds may take time to appear in a guest’s account."

Travelers who purchased tickets through third-party vendors will need to reach out to those providers to request refunds, the airline said, FOX Business reported.

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Passengers who booked using vouchers, travel credits or loyalty points face looming questions.

The news of Spirit's demise was "a blow to air travelers across the United States," according to Lee Abbamonte, a New York-based travel expert.

Abbamonte told Fox News Digital that Spirit "almost singlehandedly kept pricing competitive in many markets in the country."

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"With Spirit being no longer viable, there is no pressure on legacy carriers to keep prices lower, especially with skyrocketing fuel costs," he said, citing increased fuel prices tied to the war with Iran.

Fox News Digital reached out to Spirit Airlines for comment.

"This is going to have a ripple effect across airfare pricing all over the country," he said. 

"You may not like Spirit … but you cannot argue with their pricing model," added Abbamonte. 

"Without Spirit, there's no reason for airfare to ever come down, especially with fuel costs skyrocketing."

Hunter Shkolnik, a New York-based attorney and aviation expert, told Fox News Digital that he expects fares to go up "across the board."

"Legacy airlines win here, budget travelers lose," he said. "Spirit kept prices honest, and without it, fewer choices and higher baseline fares are almost inevitable."

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Michael Boyd, the Colorado-based CEO of aviation consultancy Boyd Group International, disagreed about fare hikes. He told Fox News Digital that the concerns are "absolute nonsense."

"By this point, Spirit is not really a factor," he said. "They’re not in a lot of major markets and the ones they are in are mostly focused in Florida."

Major U.S. airlines — including United, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest — are capping their rebooking fares. 

Affected Spirit customers may be eligible for one-way tickets priced at around $200, provided they can verify their original booking, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a Saturday morning press conference.

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"I would recommend that if you have a ticket with Spirit that you actually try to book with these airlines as soon as possible," Duffy said. 

American and Delta are also offering reduced fares on high-traffic Spirit routes, while Allegiant has frozen prices on overlapping routes. Frontier is offering up to 50% off base fares through May 10, Duffy wrote on X.

Spirit passengers had mixed reactions to the shutdown.

"My thing with Spirit was your ticket could be $75, but by the time you [added] your bag, seat and gas for the plane, you [were] paying $300 like any other airline," one person said.

"The only thing Spirit was good for is if you were flying with the clothes on your back and nothing else," another chimed in.

"The way airline prices have doubled overnight because of Spirit shutting down," a third X user wrote. "Legit it's too expensive to literally exist nowadays."

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Sophia Compton of FOX Business and Reuters contributed reporting.