Spirit Airlines Bankruptcy: A deal with Frontier still makes the most sense

There are many reasons for the financial demise of Spirit Airlines Inc., the discount carrier with the bright yellow planes, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday.

The big one was the pandemic, which halted flights and forced airlines to load up on debt. A resulting labor shortage pushed up the cost of pilots and mechanics. Another gut punch aimed at Spirit was RTX Corp. faulty engine part that has grounded some of Spirit’s fleet of about 210 Airbus SE narrow-body aircraft.