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Spirit Airlines axes 11 cities from route map as bankruptcy cuts begin
Edward Russell
Contributor
Edward Russell is a contributor for TPG. An AvGeek at heart, he covered the airline business at FlightGlobal for eight years and previously covered finance in New York and Hong Kong.
Sept. 03, 2025
•
3 min read
Spirit Airlines axes 11 cities from route map as bankruptcy cuts begin
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Spirit Airlines will end service to 11 cities in October as it begins the hard work of overhauling its route map in bankruptcy.
The Dania Beach, Fla.-based airline will end service to the following cities during the week of Oct. 2, 2025, a spokesperson confirmed:
- Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) in New Mexico
- Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM) in Alabama
- Boise Airport (BOI)
- Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (CHA) in Tennessee
- Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE) in South Carolina
- Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK)
- Portland International Airport (PDX) in Oregon
- Sacramento International Airport (SMF)
- Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC)
- San Diego International Airport (SAN)
- San Jose Mineta International Airport (SJC) in California
Spirit also suspended plans to add Middle Georgia Regional Airport (MCN) in Macon, Georgia, to its map on Oct. 16.
The cuts come days after Spirit filed for its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring in less than a year. The airline plans to shed planes, shrink its network and cut costs in the hopes of returning to profitability.
"Spirit is redesigning its network to focus its flying on key markets to provide more destinations, frequencies and enhanced connectivity in certain of its focus cities, while simultaneously reducing its presence in certain other cities," Fred Cromer, chief financial officer of Spirit, said in a statement filed with the court on Sunday.
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Robert Milton, chairman of Spirit's board of directors, told The Wall Street Journal that the carrier plans to refocus its map on key airports, including Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) and Orlando International Airport (MCO).
The 12 airports cut from Spirit's map in October represent 3.9% of the airline's total seats that month, schedule data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows.
Las Vegas' Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) will lose the most routes with the cuts, saying goodbye to eight nonstops, schedules show. FLL will lose four routes.
Many industry analysts expect further cuts at Spirit as it "significantly," as Cromer put it, shrinks its fleet.
The airline operated 214 Airbus A320-family aircraft when it filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 28. However, only around 157 planes are in service, Cromer said.
Passengers booked on a canceled flight would be entitled to a refund under U.S. Department of Transportation policy.
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Featured image by SEAN CUDAHY/THE POINTS GUY
Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
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