The ability to travel to far-off locations is pretty accessible.
You can travel on foot, by bike, in a car, on a train, on a plane — you get the idea.
But only a few of those can carry you a long way in a relatively short amount of time, and one of the main problems holding people back is cost. That's true at almost any time, but especially now when you look at how the cost of living has increased.
Think about how travel exploded in the years following the pandemic: People wanted to get out of their homes, and they had enough savings from staying home as well as stimulus checks. When they had the money to travel, they did so with gusto.
But now we're seeing one avenue of travel leave. Spirit Airlines has collapsed under financial pressures, and this budget airline is no longer an option for people looking for a lower-cost way to fly.
Now, Spirit Airlines didn't take up the largest share of the market. In fact, NPR reports that it held 3.4% of the market share from February 2025 to January 2026. There's some debate from sources in the story whether Spirit made up enough of the market to have an effect on airfare with its closing.
I'm not an economist or an aviation industry expert, but it seems like having one fewer option for low-cost plane tickets at least creates the possibility that other airlines, even other budget airlines, may feel more comfortable raising prices, especially as they face the rising cost of jet fuel.
Spirit was in trouble for a long time, filing for bankruptcy protection in 2024 and 2025. Capitalism is supposed to allow companies to fail when they can no longer operate financially. It should also allow new competition to enter the field, which we saw from low-cost operators Breeze Airlines and Avelo Airlines in 2021.
The loss of one budget airline is not the end of travel as we know it, of course, but it does make travel at least a little less obtainable until more people can afford higher airfares and/or other budget airlines can pick up the slack.
Want another take on the collapse of Spirit Airlines? My colleague Stephanie Ricca wrote about it last week.
You can reach me at bwroten@hotelnewsnow.com as well as on LinkedIn.
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