Spirit Airlines and the future of cheap flights
Planet Money
- Published
- April 29, 2026
- Duration
- 25:35
- Summary source
- description
- Last updated
- Jun 10, 2026
Discusses It’s way more than fuel costs that pushed Spirit Airlines to the brink of liquidation and led Presid…
Summary
It’s way more than fuel costs that pushed Spirit Airlines to the brink of liquidation and led President Trump to muse about “buying” them. Many low cost airlines are struggling due to a canny and calculated set of strategies from bigger airlines that we can think of as ‘revenge of the legacy carriers.’ Today on the show, we go back in time to when Spirit …
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Show notes
It’s way more than fuel costs that pushed Spirit Airlines to the brink of liquidation and led President Trump to muse about “buying” them. Many low cost airlines are struggling due to a canny and calculated set of strategies from bigger airlines that we can think of as ‘revenge of the legacy carriers.’ Today on the show, we go back in time to when Spirit was riding high and pressuring the whole industry to cut costs. We talk with then-CEO Ben Baldanza about his radical vision for cheap air trave