As the Spirit Turns: Negotiations with Government Continue But The End May Be Near

Death Watch 2K26: Spirit Edition rolled on this week with the airline continuing to seek a federal government bailout, but this week’s plot twist involved its fellow LCCs deciding that if Spirit might have access to government cash, then all LCC’s should have the same. In the end, it sounds like nobody is going to get anything as Spirit limpsD closer to a shutdown.

When we left you last week, Spirit declared in Bankruptcy Court that it was in discussions with the federal government for a $500 million bailout and the president went on the record saying it was something he was considering. Well this week, the Association of Value Airlines — yep, that’s a real thing — said it was lobbying for $2.5 billion to be split between Allegiant, Avelo, Frontier, Spirit, and Sun Country. Meanwhile Breeze was seen banging on the door wondering where its $500 million check was and how it could get in on this grift.

Now Allegiant and Sun Country are merging — do they both get $500 million each? Feels like double dipping…or the opposite of the situation where a couple goes on a group trip with someone who’s single, and the couple signs up “as a unit” and get half off the entire vacation, but if it works, well, full credit to both. But all this discussion may be for naught anyway.

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that Spirit is preparing to shut down after its creditors balked at the government deal. As of publication time, Spirit still had airplanes in the air, but if you’ve got summer travel booked on those yellow birds, you might want need to find a new ride.

JetBlue Left Feeling Blue after Q1

The good news: JetBlue’s gross revenue grew almost 5% to $2.24 billion and its RASM grew 6.5% from last year. The bad news: It lost $319 million in Q1, a significant jump from the $209 million it lost in Q1 last year. The carrier also reported an adjusted loss of $0.87 per share, coming in below (or above?) analyst expectations of a $0.70 loss.

As with everyone else, fuel played a major role in JetBlue’s Q1, getting so expensive that it even tried operating select airplanes on Dunkin’ coffee instead of fuel. That proved unsuccessful.

It plans to slow hiring (we don’t know if that means hiring less staff or literally slowing down the process like making applicants apply by hand and mail their information in via the U.S. mail), cut capacity, and increase fares to fight the red ink coming its way. Capacity in Q1 dropped 1.7% YoY with greater cuts expected.

JetBlue ended Q1 with $1.86 billon in cash and cash equivalents, down from $1.95 billion it closed 2025 with.

American Raises $1.1 Billion

American managed to raise about $1.1 billion through an aircraft-backed financing deal connected to 32 airplanes in its fleet. It is American’s first transaction of this type of the year, and it will use the cash to refinance existing agreements and to upgrade the bathroom in Robert Isom’s office.

The transaction is divided into two tranches, the first of which is worth $905 million with a maturity date in 2038, and a second of just $236 million which will mature in 2035. Credit ratings agencies assigned investment-grade ratings to both, which tells us these companies do not fly American.

The 32 airplanes being used as collateral in the deal are valued at a cool $1.5 billion. It includes six new A321XLRs, 12 A321ceos, 11 B737 MAX 8s, and three B777-300ERs that are reaching middle age but still totally look young and vibrant.

Allegiant’s Strong Quarter

Out of all the U.S. airlines, it’s Allegiant that spent its earnings report crowing about its successful start to 2026. Allegiant — apologies — Allegiant Travel Company — set a company record for Q1 with $732 million in gross revenue. The 5% jump in YoY revenue resulted in a $42.5 million profit, up 32% from last year.

What did Allegiant do right? It focused on keeping what’s working and getting rid of what doesn’t, an unusual idea to some. System capacity was down 6% for Allegiant, but TRASM went up 16.4%. The average fare — which admittedly is just part of Allegiant’s revenue pie — jumped from $68 to $82 for all scheduled service.

Now that’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that Allegiant does not expect the gravy train to continue into Q2. It’s outlook expects a 7% YoY capacity drop and its asumming fuel costs at $4.35 per gallon. Its projected EPS is between negative $1 and break even. It expects its merger with Sun Country to close sometime this month, but none of its forward-looking guidance includes figures from Sun Country because a) the deal isn’t done yet and b) it hasn’t figure out exactly how Sun Country makes money.

United Adds Lyft as Mileage Plus Redemption Partner

United MileagePlus members who connect their account with Lyft will now be able to pay for rides with miles from United. The redemption rates are — as you’d expect — terrible. A $38 ride on Lyft was available for 5,945 miles which is such a bad redemption rate that even Delta SkyMiles officials were offended. But hey, if you’re cash poor but MileagePlus rich and need a ride, go for it.

Lyft officials told Cranky off the record that they originally intended to offer rates at double the current price for trips to and from Newark, but it scared off so many of their drivers they had to role the program back.

“We’re giving MileagePlus members more ways to use their miles – whether it’s booking a United flight to a dream destination or traveling across town to meet up with friends through Lyft,” said Jarad Fisher, president of United MileagePlus, which is technically true.

The two did launch the ability for United customers to earn miles on rides late last year, ranging from 1 mile per $1 spent on most rides and up to as much as 4 miles per $1 on pre-scheduled airport rides.

• Air Cambodia which maybe you knew existed or maybe you didn’t, is adding a codeshare with Etihad.
• Air India is poaching Singapore Airlines for senior-level staff.
• Alaska‘s award-nominated flight between Seattle and Rome flew for the first time.
• Ascend Airways is descending.
• Biman Bangladesh ordered 14 airplanes from Boeing.
• China Airlines is now a redemption partner for JetBlue’s TrueBlue program.
• China Eastern is flying to Vienna.
• China Southern is combining with Xiamen Airlines on an order for 137 A320neos with a street value of $21.4 billion.
• Copa placed an order for 60 B737 MAXs.
• Delta announced pay raises for its non-union workforce.
• Fiji Airways flight from Nadi to Dallas/Fort worth is no more.
• Georgian Airways is running out of money.
• Gol will score 3x weekly in New York beginning July 8.
• IndiGo will resume flying to Doha today.
• ITA had a baby born on-board. Poor kid.
• Korean is very excited about the delivery of its 5,000th sharklet.
• Philippine Airlines earned a profit in Q1.
• Porter is adding three transborder flights: Halifax to Fort Lauderdale and Edmonton to Phoenix and Las Vegas.
• Turkish is suspending 18 destinations.
• Tunisair will wet lease with Plus Ultra for its flights to Montréal and Paris, which makes one wonder what Tunisair’s problem is with French speakers.
• United is starting four new European destinations for the summer season. Unfortunately for Europe, they’re all being operated from Newark.

Why did the computer programmer use the entire bottle of shampoo for one shower each time?

Because the label says “apply, rinse, and repeat.”