A Spirit Airlines pilot choked back tears mid-flight as he broke the shocking news to passengers that the budget carrier was shutting down, a somber video shows.
The shattered pilot was captured in a viral TikTok telling stunned passengers they were aboard one of the airline’s final landings, moments after learning Saturday that Spirit ceased all operations when a desperate $500 million bailout bid from the Trump administration fell through.
“We’ve been using an app to track all our planes in the sky today, knowing that it could be our last day, and it appears that it is our last day at Spirit today,” the aviator trembled as he delivered the news.
“We are the second-to-last plane to land – every other plane has landed; flights are not taking off again,” he added while choking up, as fliers headed to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas groaned and gasped in disbelief, the video showed.
“Crazy stuff has happened, but it’s funny as we sit here – I’ll speak for myself – I don’t remember any of the bad times, just the good ones. We’ve been in the air since 1983, 43 years, and unfortunately, that’s over. So, thank you for your support over the years and onward and upward, right?”
The ultra-low-cost airline, which had been circling the drain financially for years, crashed and burned early Saturday, costing some 17,000 jobs and stranding thousands of passengers across 277 cancelled flights.
Spirit promised inconvenienced customers refunds, but United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue and Southwest all capped their prices for those looking to get to their destinations aboard a new airline.
President Trump had contemplated the hefty bailout for Spirit Airlines, but ultimately, that deal fell apart.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later pointed the finger at predecessor Pete Buttigieg, blaming Spirit’s collapse on the Biden administration’s 2024 decision to kill a $3.8 billion JetBlue merger.
“Spirit tried to merge with JetBlue. The Joe Biden-Pete Buttigieg administration and DOJ tanked that deal,” Duffy told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “Immediately after that, they filed for bankruptcy.”
“This was in the works for some time. I’m proud of the American airlines that have stepped up to take care of the passengers of Spirit, making sure they get home.”
