Where it all went wrong for America’s least-loved airline
Embarking on a nearly five-hour flight with an airline sometimes called “America’s Ryanair” wasn’t exactly a tantalising prospect. But when I needed the cheapest direct connection from Las Vegas to Miami a few years ago, it looked like the best option available – at least on paper.
Like its European cousin, Spirit Airlines has never had much love. Earlier this year, a comparative study of American airlines, looking at everything from customer service to cleanliness, declared it the worst airline in the States (Telegraph Travel’s recent ranking put it 87th, globally, out of 90 carriers). Meanwhile, a survey of American consumers named Spirit as one of the least trusted brands in the country.
Perhaps it’s not so surprising, then, that the “ultra-low-cost” (as opposed to just low-cost) carrier appears to be heading for the buffers. On the New York Stock Exchange, the company’s stock has fallen some 90 per cent this year, and reports suggest that it may be filing for bankruptcy protection soon.
What is so bad about Spirit? For years, this budget airline has been synonymous with the kind of irritating additional fees that many British travellers have come to know via the likes of Ryanair. Read reviews online and you’ll find scores of disgruntled Americans ranting about being charged $60 to take a suitcase on board.
“I’m surprised they haven’t tried to charge people for breathing oxygen,” says David Fourzan, a frequent flyer I know in Texas, who tells me that he would never consider Spirit. “They’re a no-frills airline but at least they’re reliable,” says Molly Jo Shea, who uses them semi-regularly to get from New Orleans to Los Angeles.
When I took a chance on Spirit in 2022, I admit that I had some apprehension. But with the rock-bottom price of less than $100 to get all the way from near the West Coast to the southeastern point of Florida, I thought it was worth taking the risk.
It probably helped that, as a Ryanair regular, I knew every trick in the book when it came to baggage fees. And while a sold-out flight packed into a single-aisle Airbus A320 was never going to be luxurious, it was no worse than anything I’ve experienced closer to home – and it even had Wi-Fi.
In the context of US aviation, the Spirit story is quite an interesting one. While the Florida-based carrier wasn’t the first budget carrier to launch in the States (that particular honour goes to Southwest Airlines in the 1970s), Spirit was a pioneer in stripping back perks to drive down ticket prices.
In 2010, it was the first US airline to start charging customers for carry-on luggage, limiting non-paying passengers to a smaller “personal item”. It’s a model that has since become ubiquitous amongst budget carriers, with Ryanair charging for locker space since 2018.
As you might expect, these stringent rules weren’t always popular, but they did mean cheaper tickets – at least in terms of the base rate. Over the past decade, Spirit’s tickets have consistently ranked amongst the cheapest in the States.
According to an industry report, Spirit now makes a whopping 56 per cent of its income from so-called “ancillary fees” – more than any other airline in the world. For context, Ryanair currently gets around 32 per cent of its revenue from extra fees, compared to 36 per cent for easyJet and 44 per cent for Wizz Air.
You might assume that Spirit conquered the fees game by being as Scrooge-like as possible. But when you compare its policies to some of the ones we face on this side of the pond, the American carrier is actually more generous in some cases.
Take the baggage allowances. Looking at the measurements, Spirit’s definition of a “personal item” (the small bag you can bring for free) is 60 per cent larger than Ryanair’s. Likewise, Spirit’s more expensive bundle tickets also come with some free drinks and snacks, something you’d never expect with Michael O’Leary.
As for the actual fees, comparisons are tricky as budget airlines adjust their prices depending on the route. But conducting some quick market research against Ryanair and easyJet, Spirit’s prices were usually around 50 per cent more – with customers paying $59 (in advance) for a carry-on.
So why are they struggling? As usual with these things, there is no one direct cause. After investing heavily to expand in the 2010s, the company then borrowed even more heavily during the pandemic. Since the great reopening, it’s been squeezed by higher staff and fuel costs, and has struggled to get an advantage over its competitors.
In 2022, Spirit’s board unveiled plans to effectively sell the company to a larger operator. Yet when a merger with the budget US carrier JetBlue was blocked on competition grounds, Spirit’s stock price went into free fall. Now the company has delayed publishing its latest financial results.
Are there any cautionary lessons for European carriers? As a challenger brand seeking to earn a slice of the market, Spirit isn’t really comparable to the established budget operators we use in Europe. Indeed Ryanair’s most recent accounts show that – unlike Spirit – the airline’s planes are now fully paid off, meaning that the company has a solid financial buffer against potential shocks.
As for the US market, you suspect that, for all their grumbles, American consumers would surely end up missing the cheapest airline on the market. Spirit’s flights to the Caribbean have been popular with working-class families looking for a budget vacation. That may soon be a thing of the past.
As someone who often flies in the States, I know I’d miss them. Just $95 from Las Vegas to Miami? That was the best deal I had all trip.
