Spirit Airlines Drops Over 40% Amid Bankruptcy Discussions

Spirit Airlines Inc. SAVE experienced a significant drop of over 40% in pre-market trading on Friday. This decline follows reports of the airline engaging in bankruptcy talks with bondholders.

At the time of writing, it was trading at $1.35 while it closed at $2.24 on Wednesday, as per Benzinga Pro.

The budget airline is contemplating a Chapter 11 filing as it faces severe financial difficulties. The discussions primarily aim to secure bondholder and creditor support for a potential bankruptcy filing, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

Spirit’s financial strain is largely due to a $3.3 billion debt, including over $1.1 billion in secured bonds that mature within a year. The company must address these notes by Oct. 21 to meet its credit card processor’s deadline.

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CEO Ted Christie acknowledged in August that the airline is actively negotiating with bondholders’ advisers to manage these debts. He emphasized the priority of securing a favorable outcome for the business while enhancing performance and guest experience.

Spirit’s financial troubles have been worsened by its failure to achieve annual profitability since the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline plans to cut capacity by nearly 20% in the fourth quarter, further impacted by the recall of Pratt & Whitney engines, which has grounded part of its fleet and led to pilot furloughs.

In March, Spirit scraped off its $3.8 billion merger agreement with JetBlue Airways Corp JBLU. After the talks about Spirit’s bankruptcy, JetBlue was up by 5.16%,

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Image by Tomás Del Coro via Wikimedia Commons

This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Pooja Rajkumari

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