Spirit Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection
Spirit Airlines surprised no one when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The carrier accepted a $29 Chapter 11 submission acknowledgement fee from the court as part of the filing. Spirit plans to continue business as usual in the immediate future, which means its customers can continue to count on Spirit’s traditional on-time service, friendly passengers, and rock solid customer experience as it reorganizes.
Spirit has been dogged by its failed merger with JetBlue, ongoing engine issues with Pratt & Whitney, Boeing delivery delays, the CrowdStrike outage, mean late night talk show hosts, yellow paint shortages, starving children in Africa, the phase of the moon, and its insistence that its BuzzBallz offerings are certified as good for gut health by the USDA.
It reached a deal with bondholders for $350 million in equity, while its stock was delisted from the NYSE as a part of the bankruptcy filing. It delayed its Q3 earnings report while working out a deal with creditors that would eliminate most of its existing equity.
Spirit becomes the first major U.S. carrier to file for bankruptcy since American in 2011, unless you count Expressjet and the mighty Aha! brand in 2022. (We don’t.)
Allegiant Announces Additions
Allegiant’s largest expansion in its history was announced this week, as the carrier introduced 44 new nonstop routes and three new destinations to its route map, at least two of which appear to be real places.
Colorado Springs (COS), Columbia (CAE), and Gulf Shores, AL (GUF) are the three newest members of the Allegiant family, with service beginning next year. Colorado Springs will see flights beginning in February to Phoenix/Mesa, Orange County, and St. Petersburg, while Columbia will see flights beginning in May to both Orlando/Sanford and Fort Lauderdale. Gulf Shores has been without commercial service since Southern Airways Express left the airport last decade, but it will come roaring back in May with Allegiant flights to St. Louis/Mid-America (BLV), Cincinnati, Houston/Hobby, Kansas City, Knoxville, and NW Arkansas.
Sarasota was the big winner in the expansion, adding flights to eight world-class destinations including Albany, Elmira, Greenville/Spartanburg, Knoxville, Lexington, Moline, Omaha, and Roanoke. Plattsburgh, Grand Rapids, and Niagara Falls all are adding flights to Myrtle Beach, while that Nashville – Shreveport non-stop you’ve all been waiting on will begin on May 22.
Frontier Adds New Frontiers
Frontier Airlines announced 16 new routes this week that include the carrier returning to three airports it previously operated to: the beach haven of Antigua and Barbuda, the gateway to Lake Tahoe — Reno, and another place that has an airport — Tucson.
The return to ANU is not overwhelming, as it’ll start with just once-weekly service to San Juan, but it’s something. Reno will start with flights to both Denver and Las Vegas, both beginning March 7 and operating 3x weekly while Denver is the loser winner of the Tucson lottery with 3x weekly flights beginning March 3.
Each of the 16 new routes will operate 3x weekly or less — with the exception of Orlando to Los Angeles, which will fly daily. In terms to destinations added, Austin was the big winner in that it’s adding four: Chicago/ORD, Cincinnati, Orlando, and Phoenix… but not Tucson.
American ExpAAnds Gate Lice CrAAckdown
After limited tests in Albuquerque, Tucson, and Washington/National, American Airlines plans to roll out its boarding group enforcement technology at more than 100 airports across the country before eventually expanding to every airport it serves as soon as next year.
The system is simple in its execution — when a customer scans a boarding pass, one tone sounds if the passenger is boarding in the proper zone, and if someone is trying to cut ahead of the line, the system plays this sound, while giving the gate agent a visual alert in the form of a giant red X. If that person is booked in Basic Economy, a hole will open at the boarding gate where the offending passenger will fall into a dungeon beneath the terminal to never be heard from again.
The carrier says that the penalty of separating offenders from their families for the rest of their lives may seem harsh at first, “but just picture how serene the boarding process will be just a couple weeks after this system is implemented.”
Alaska Expands Bag Tag Scheme Offer
Alaska Airlines is expanding its $89 electronic bag tag offer to all its fliers after a trial run that included 2,500 elite members of its Mileage Plan program. Here’s the rub — you pay $89 per device for the right to check your bags with an electronic bag tag. The $89 doesn’t cover the checked bag fee (if applicable), and only works on one bag at a time — so if you’re checking multiple bags, you’re SOL.
What’s the advantage? Beats us. Alaska says it saves time by allowing you to go straight to the bag drop with your ID, but isn’t that basically what happens now anyway? Maybe you print the tag at home, or print it at a kiosk? Occasionally one might have to see an agent for a thorny issue, or to check an oversized item, and presumably that doesn’t change with this electronic tag.
One advantage is that anyone who pays the $89 will surely be the only person on the block with one, so it could be a great conversation topic at the neighborhood holiday potluck. If anyone is taking Alaska up on this generous offer, we’ve got some non-voting stock in Cranky Weekly Review we’d like to sell you. Please have your people contact ours.
- Aer Lingus is strengthening its relAAtionship with AA.
- Air Arabia made money.
- Air Canada is ending service from Toronto to Baltimore, Hartford, Kansas City, and Portland (OR). BWI, BDL, and MCI are market exits for the carrier.
- Air Tahiti Nui‘s Seattle – Paris flight is no more. The carrier will continue to fly between Seattle and Papeete.
- American settled its suit with Sabre. Better hope those printers were turned on, or they’ll have to redo the whole thing.
- Avelo‘s second international destination is a good one — CancĂșn. The carrier will fill in a major gap in the U.S. – Mexico route map, as the CUN airport is wildly underserved to the U.S. market.
- BA‘s IT meltdown earlier this week shows its IT system is working, according to the guy whose weekly paycheck relies on the the system working because he’s in charge of the system.
- Copa turned a $140 million profit in Q3.
- Delta is going to serve Shake Shack in first class on flights of 900 miles and more out of Boston beginning December 1.
- easyJet is adding 26 new routes next year.
- Etihad is adding three more A350 freighters.
- Ethiopian made a decision on what aircraft it plans on adding — and that decision is that its not ready to make a decision.
- Fiji Airways will begin nonstop flights to Cairns on April 10.
- Finnair did a thing that seemed like a parody but apparently is real.
- Hawaiian offered a sober reminder to the people of Austin that aloha also means goodbye.
- JetBlue is feeling a little purple.
- Norse Atlantic is launching the route you never knew you needed between Stockholm and Bangkok.
- Qantas opened its new training facility in Sydney.
- Royal Jordanian will begin 2x weekly service from Amman to Washington/Dulles on March 23.
- Ryanair is amongst a group of emails being sued by the Spanish government over bag fees. Ryanair is expected to take this reasonably and not freak out. At all.
- SAS says it has 8 million members in its EuroBonus program.
- Saudia transported 9.1 million passengers in the last year.
- SWISS has a new skincare line its offering in first class. Both of you who find this interesting are free to comment.
- TAAG is it, if it means taking delivery of its first Dreamliner in February.
- TAP‘s profit went down.
- Thai is headed back to Brussels.
- United seems displeased WestJet added an Edmonton – Chicago/ORD flight.
- WestJet‘s first crack at a summer 2025 schedule shows a 10% increase in capacity.
Why did the mashed potatoes cross the road?
To get to the other sides.
15 comments on “Cranky Weekly Review Presented by OAK: Spirit Reaches a New Chapter, Allegiant Adds On”
In the line about Norse opening Stockholm – Bangkok… you’re joking in your comment about the route not being needed, aren’t you ?
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/why-one-in-fifty-swedes-travels-to-thailand-every-year
Perhaps American could have a different noise for the wrong boarding group ?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vfthzU3V4zo
Clicking on both of Cranky’s (and yours), is why I love reading this newsletter.
Surprisingly, from what I’ve seen O’Leary has been relatively calm about the Spanish ruling, expecting it to be substantially pared back or overturned once the EU looks at it. Most of the articles I’ve read indicate it largely contravenes EU law.
That said, EU law is rarely administered evenly (*cough* Alitalia/ITA *cough*), so who knows?
Willie Walsh over at IATA. however, seems to have had an absolute meltdown.
Iâm disappointed that you didnât mention that Allegiant is also adding a seasonal flight between FAT and PDX. Allegiant was founded in fresno, so I feel we should always be mentioned whenever referencing the airline :)
Go G4! A ULCC that knows its mission and strictly adheres to it and, as a result, has been successful and profitable. I’ve never flown them (and honestly I hope I never will!) but the avgeek in me is pleased that they have identified lesser populated places and stimulated demand with their service. As compared to a ULCC that is so devoid of good ideas it flies a daily ATL-DFW flight.
âLesser populatedâ?!?! Excuse me sir! Lol jk
Actually Alaska serves the FAT-PDX route 2-3x daily with reasonably priced options (operated by Skywest). Iâll definitely keep choosing Alaska over Allegiant so I suspect this Allegiant flight will help those with ultimate flexibility to fly on a Sunday or Thursday save a few bucks as Alaska matches their prices in the Saver bucket.
I don’t believe anybody who reviewed the entirety of Allegiant’s destinations would disagree with the vast majority of them behind characterized as “lesser populated.”
Spirit does not fly Boeing aircraft………
Hence the jab at CrowdStrike :)
There is also not a shortage of yellow paint, nor is the phase of the moon an issue.
I’ve flown the HNL-AUS HA flight. It was great, but also never got sufficient load factors, and when you can actually fill the plane HNL-SEA, you might as well do that instead. If AS wants to get Austinites to Hawaii they can connect them over SAN, which serves all four major islands, with a ~11 mile deviation from Great Circle, beating out LAX as the most direct connecting point to HNL. Having to connect somewhere after a redeye isn’t ideal, but c’est la vie.
About the only way that route could come back is if HA got A321XLRs, and there are too few routes for which that plane would work, as HNL-HND is about the limit westbound (and HND definitely doesn’t need that small of a plane).
On another AUS topic, naturally F9 is scheduling AUS-ORD Tue/Thu/Sun, so I can’t fly them for an upcoming conference. I’ve actually flown F9 AUS-ORD and back before…in 2015. My flight there was in a ULCC interior. The flight back wasn’t.
I love me some beat down on Tucson!
Cheers.
American’s gate lice shaming strategy is a great idea but will not ultimately succeed due to two major constraints.
First is the dozens of group 7-9 passengers who stand in front of the gate forming a mass clump of stupidity that forces everybody else to go around them and/or ask them if they are in line.
Second is that it has become increasingly difficult to shame people these days. Sadly those most in need of public shaming are the most impervious to it. Nevertheless, good try American!
One thing about AA is that their Gate displays don’t always show which Group is boarding. And if they do, it’s often delayed. It’s also not giant sized for all to see. I feel like other airlines do a better job with visual announcements.