Spirit Airlines airplanes taxi on the tarmac at New York’s Laguardia Airport. Ryan Murphy/Reuters

Relatively few people fly Spirit Airlines – but the company could still affect how much you pay for your holiday travel, even if recent government-mandated flight cancellations end.

For years, Spirit has had an outsized effect on fares across the industry. The discount carrier’s rock-bottom fares forced much larger carriers, such as American, Delta and United Airlines, to keep their prices lower. That includes offering lower-priced seats at the back of planes, often on the same no-frills basis as Spirit.

But Spirit, facing severe financial hardship, is now a fraction of the size it was just a year ago. That is impacting fares this holiday season.

Even if flight cancellations because of the government shutdown are restored, there will be nearly 11,000 fewer Spirit flights this holiday season compared to last year, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium analyzed by CNN. That includes the period six days before Thanksgiving through the Sunday after New Year’s Day. The drop represents a one-third reduction in Spirit’s schedule, or a loss of nearly 2 million available seats.

US domestic flights are expected to cost 6% more over Thanksgiving week this year compared to last and rise 7% during the year-end holiday period, according to discount air travel site Going.com.

“Now I can’t pinpoint that and say all of that is attributable to Spirit,” said Katy Nastro, a spokesperson for Going.com. “But it definitely is contributing to the higher prices we’re seeing.”

Like most other low-cost carriers, Spirit has continually lost money since 2020, when the pandemic hit. Now in the midst of its second bankruptcy reorganization, the company once again warned investors on Tuesday there was “substantial doubt” over its ability to stay in business over the next 12 months.

That doesn’t mean Spirit is shuttering immediately. But the airline has been slashing flights in a desperate effort to stem losses, offering far fewer routes.

The routes of virtually every US airline now have less overlap with Spirit than before, Raymond James airlines analyst Savanthi Syth said in a note to clients this week. And with Spirit flying on fewer routes, the carrier won’t put nearly as much downward pressure on the fares of larger airlines.

In August, when Spirit first warned investors about possibly being forced out of business, Spirit CEO Dave Davis told employees the airline remained “critical” for flyers.

“We have saved consumers hundreds of millions of dollars, whether they fly with us or not,” he wrote.

Source: CNN Travel