Spirit's collapse erased 5 million seats. Here's what happened next.

• JetBlue and Frontier have aggressively added capacity, but only about one-fifth of Spirit's summer seats have been replaced.
• The loss of the ultra-low-cost carrier is expected to lead to higher average airfares for consumers.
• Several smaller airports have lost service entirely on routes that were exclusively served by Spirit.

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With Spirit Airlines gone, other companies are already swooping in to pick up some of its passengers. 

When the pioneering ultra-low-cost carrier abruptly shuttered on May 2, it laid the groundwork for a reshuffling of the U.S. aviation industry.  

It’s not just that most other U.S. airlines stepped up to help Spirit’s stranded passengers; the closure also opened opportunities for carriers to pick up new routes and customers more permanently, and ultimately to raise fares (more on that in a bit). 

“I’m not sure that we’ve had enough time to fully assess what the impact of Spirit’s failure is on the rest of the airline industry, but it certainly implies that we’ve got greater concentration in the industry,” Brett House a professor of economics at Columbia Business School, told me. 

While it’s still too early to say exactly what post-Spirit flying will look like in the United States long-term, some trends are already emerging around which companies are likely to benefit the most. Here’s how the industry reshuffle is shaping up so far. 

Two airlines emerge stronger 

In the immediate aftermath of Spirit’s shuttering, JetBlue Airways and Frontier Airlines made aggressive moves to fill the sudden yellow gap in the skies. (There’s probably a color theory joke to be made here about blue, green and yellow all shuffling around together, but I digress.) 

Both JetBlue and Frontier had (separately) tried to merge with Spirit in recent years, but Spirit’s shareholders rejected the Frontier proposal in favor of JetBlue’s more lucrative offer, which was then blocked by the Biden administration. 

In the last few weeks, both airlines tried to backfill some of Spirit’s lost capacity. 

According to aviation analytics company OAG, JetBlue was able to seriously strengthen its position in Fort Lauderdale, adding nine routes previously operated by Spirit at the airport, and boosting its capacity share to 37% from 22% in the hub where it competed with Spirit most directly. 

“Over the past year, we have increased our daily departures from Fort Lauderdale by more than 75%, and we are not done. We are stepping up for a community that has been a part of our story since day one at an important moment, adding service where customers need it.” Daniel Shurz, JetBlue’s senior vice president of revenue, network, and enterprise planning, told me in an email statement. “Our growth in Fort Lauderdale is intentional and built for the long term. We see significant opportunity ahead at FLL, and we intend to keep investing where JetBlue can make the biggest difference.” 

Nevertheless, Fort Lauderdale still saw an overall capacity reduction after Spirit folded. According to OAG, Spirit and JetBlue sent around 638,000 seats out of the airport combined in April, and JetBlue’s service will be closer to 426,000 by September. 

According to Cirium, another aviation data analytics company, Frontier is also making big moves to capture former Spirit market share. Cirium said Frontier added 425,000 seats on former Spirit routes over the summer. 

“We have been opportunistic in deploying our capacity in the wake of Spirit’s shutdown. It has created opportunities to grow our presence and introduce more customers to Frontier in a number of markets,” Josh Flyr, Frontier’s vice president of network and operations design, told me in an email. “We currently serve more than 100 routes previously flown by Spirit and we are positioning ourselves as the new value airline of choice.” 

Still, a big yellow hole remains in the nation’s skies. 

According to Cirium, Spirit’s closure removed 5 million seats from the aviation network this summer, and competitors have only backfilled about 1 million of those. 

Higher prices for travelers 

For consumers, the most frustrating part of Spirit’s closure is likely to be higher airfares across the board. Even for those who never flew on the discount carrier, Spirit's mere presence forced other airlines to sell cheaper tickets. 

“On balance, it’s going to be negative for consumers,” House said. “The exit of Spirit makes the airline industry in the United States more concentrated and less competitive ... That means on average, higher fares than would otherwise be the case.” 

It remains to be seen, however, if and how much these higher prices drive travelers out of the market. Part of Spirit's struggle in recent years was that travelers were spending more on their trips, and willing to pay for more premium airline experiences. That left the ultra-low-cost carrier struggling to compete for passengers with a model that focused on bare-bones experiences and rock-bottom prices in a period when travelers wanted something else. 

I’ll be curious to see if other airlines get a boost in basic economy ticket sales as Spirit’s former customers disperse to other carriers. Still, Frontier and other smaller ultra-low-cost carriers like Breeze, Avelo and Allegiant remain and could be poised to grow more. 

“The continued availability of low-fare service across the U.S. is imperative to ensure consumers have access to affordable airfares,” Frontier’s Flyr said. “Beyond the value-driven flight options low-fare carriers provide, their presence in a market forces competition among airlines and reduces the cost of flying for consumers overall.” 

All this comes against a backdrop of more Americans planning to travel this year, according to AAA, but higher oil prices as well. Amid those higher prices and the loss of Spirit, average domestic airfare in the U.S. this summer is $510, according to data from airfare deals website Going. For comparison, the average domestic airfare price in summer 2025 was $432. 

Some small airports left behind 

While Spirit competed directly with other airlines on many routes, a handful of small airports are now entirely without service. 

According to OAG, eight of Spirit’s 121 routes were served exclusively by the airline, and five of those remain without service. 

Those routes are: 

• Atlantic City International Airport (ACY) − Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) 

• ACY – Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) 

• Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL) − San Antionio International Airport (SAT) 

• Arnold Palmer Regional Airport (LBE; near Pittsburgh) − Orlando International Airport (MCO) 

• Key West International Airport (EYW) − FLL  

It’s unclear if other airlines will eventually backfill those routes. 

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at [email protected].