The Main Squawk: Spirit’s New Motto: Shrink It ‘Til You Sink It
The airline that was once the darling of the “only pay for what you need” model is once again slashing flights and cutting costs in an attempt to exit its second bankruptcy in the past year. For a company that perfected the art of nickel-and-diming its customers, it’s ironic to see it shed planes faster than a passenger trying to avoid a $50 carry-on fee. But unfortunately, the reality is just that: beginning as early as the end of the month, the crippled ultra-low cost carrier will cut its fleet by more than half, shrinking from over 200 aircraft to around 100.
This type of surgical restructuring comes at a devastating cost to the people working the actual operation, however. The fleet reduction—driven by the Airline’s refusal to renew 110 aircraft leases and a sudden infusion of $475 million in financing to keep the lights on—means a massive loss of jobs for pilots, flight attendants, and support staff. It’s hard not to feel for the frontline workers who are losing their jobs over a business model that ultimately proved unsustainable against the push toward Premium products. Those workers deserve genuine sympathy—a far cry from the attitude Spirit showed anyone who was looking for a free snack.
What remains of the black-and-yellow fleet will focus on high-density leisure routes, but even that’s a gamble. While the old model of dirt-cheap fares ($22 one-way!) definitely attracted a certain type of customer, the aggressive cost-cutting that defined the Airline in the early-2010s may ultimately prove to be its demise.
In a major victory for the European conglomerate and a sign of how decades of poor decisions can impact the legacy of a Company, the Airbus A320 has officially dethroned the Boeing 737 as the world’s most-delivered commercial jet. Despite its early monopoly on the industry when it debuted in 1968, the 737 has finally fallen to the more versatile A320 family.
To most of us, this is no surprise. Boeing has faced years of production restrictions, quality control lapses, and delays in certifying new variants like the MAX 7 and MAX 10—each of which are still pending certification. Each of these issues hindered the aerospace giant’s ability to ramp up production and meet its delivery goals. Fortunately, its rival across the pond was to happy to fill these gaps with, you know, genuinely safe airplanes.
As things stand today, Airbus is truly running circles around Boeing, with the A320 family offering a far better passenger experience and greater range versatility than the aging 737 platform. With Boeing still struggling to stabilize its production lines and years away from developing a true, clean-sheet 737 replacement, Airbus will almost definitely retain the narrowbody throne for the foreseeable future.
An expansion of Love Field is kicking off in Dallas, an effort that has faced headwinds since its hometown airline (cough Southwest cough) started operations there in 1971. The airport’s 20-gate maximum is sacred text in the infamous 2006 Five-Party Agreement that ended the earlier Wright Amendment which Southwest exploited for decades. While that Five-Party Agreement was supposed to be the final word, nothing is written in stone, and now a new agreement is on the table.
The Love Field Expansion Airport Program (LEAP), which takes effect in 2028, details an $800 million mission to modernize the facility with a new headhouse and concourse amenities. The true mischief of the expansion, however, is buried in a provision that allows The City of Dallas not to oppose a change in federal law that lifts the 20-gate cap. If the City follows suit, then the airport’s “Majority-in-Interest” tenant (cough Southwest cough) gets a whopping 66% to 75% of the airport’s newly constructed gates.
However enthusiastic Love’s expansion plans may be, this entire scheme is almost certainly going to be an expensive legal battle. The Five-Party Agreement explicitly requires the Cities of Dallas, Fort Worth, and the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) Airport to oppose any effort to raise the gate cap at DAL by law. Translation? Any changes to the language in the original 2006 agreement guarantees and endless sum of fees paid to the Big Three consulting firms. So, good luck Elliott Southwest!
United is launching yet another sizable expansion of its 2026 summer schedule, boasting service to four new European cities, two of which will be served by the Airline’s treacherous ever-comfortable Boeing 737 MAX 8. The new nonstop international destinations from the U.S. will include Split, Croatia; Bari, Italy; Glasgow, Scotland; and Santiago de Compostela, Spain, with additional service to Reykjavik from Washington-Dulles, and a daily flight to Seoul from Newark.
The beauty of the announcement? Three of the four exciting new European gateways will originate from the “crown jewel” of United’s network: EWR. Meaning that anyone dreaming of ancient Roman palaces and Scottish castles must first contend with the very real possibility of sitting on the tarmac for hours before their adventure truly begins.
The airline’s announcement also emphasized the return of all nine routes from last year’s “historic” expansion. This strategy of serving forty-six cities across the Atlantic—more than any other U.S. carrier—is designed to make United appear as if it’s the country’s “clear flag carrier,” until you realize no matter which way you slice it: you have to travel through Newark.
Air India pilots want the Boeing 787 Dreamliner grounded after the ram air turbine (RAT) unexpectedly deployed on a flight from Amritsar to Birmingham, U.K.
Alaska and Hawaiian are renumbering their flights as part of their merger.
American is removing carry-on-bag sizers from its gates in an attempt to show the traveling public that it really isn’t a low cost carrier.
Burbank went ATC Zero last week as a result of the on-going government shutdown.
A Delta passenger in Salt Lake City gave a gate agent a “purple nurple” and then made a run for it.
Frontier is taking advantage of chokepoints in route networks at Avelo and Spirit by adding service between Burbank and Las Vegas, and Orlando and Pensacola.
Hawaiian is joining the Oneworld alliance.
JSX celebrated the addition of its fiftieth aircraft last week: an Embraer ERJ-145.
A Ryanair Boeing 737 landed with just under 500 pound of fuel last week. Hey, maybe it’s a new cost-cutting technique. Who knows what they’re up to over there.
The SkyTeam Alliance now allows customers with “elite” status to access lounges on U.S. domestic flights, even if it means they’ll be waiting in line to access the SkyClub.
Southwest is adding Anchorage to its route map in 2026, because who doesn’t love sitting in a Boeing 737 for 5+ hours.
Xiamen Air will soon operate the world’s longest flight: New York-JFK to Fuzhou, in a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, clocking in at 19 hours and 20 minutes. Ooph!
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