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U.S. domestic flights are expected to cost 6 percent more this Thanksgiving week than last year, and increase by 7 percent over the following holidays, according to Going.com. It’s partly because of the fall of Spirit airlines.
While Spirit isn’t known as a top airline, it has big implications for flyers across the U.S. Even flyers who haven’t bought Spirit tickets have experienced the impact of its budget prices.
That’s because Spirit’s discounted flight prices force larger carriers like American, Delta, and United Airlines to keep their prices down. That may not be the case anymore.
Spirit has been losing money since 2020, when the pandemic hit. It has declined in size severely in the past year alone, and filed for bankruptcy for a second time in August. The company told investors on November 11 that it had “substantial doubt” it would be able to remain in business over the next year.
As the government reopens, airport schedules will eventually begin to refill with a more typical number of flights. But even still, roughly 11,000 fewer Spirit flights will take to the skies compared with last year’s holiday season, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium data analyzed by CNN.
That translates to a reduction of one third of Spirit’s flights, and two million fewer airplane seats.
Spirit CEO Dave Davis told investors in August that the airline was essential to flyers.
“We have saved consumers hundreds of millions of dollars, whether they fly with us or not,” he said.
If Spirit goes down, prices will almost certainly go up.
Still, flight reductions are set to remain at 6 percent rather than rising to 10 percent, thanks to air traffic controllers returning to work. Transportation secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement that the limit will remain in place while officials assess whether it’s safe for the air traffic system to return to operating as usual.
“If the FAA safety team determines the trend lines are moving in the right direction, we’ll put forward a path to resume normal operations,” he said.
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Ava Levinson
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