Updated Feb. 19, 2026, 12:13 p.m. ET
- Spirit Airlines has canceled over 250 flights since Feb. 13 due to staffing shortages.
- South Florida airports, particularly Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, have been heavily affected.
- The airline has acknowledged the cancellations are tied to a lack of crews and flight attendants.
- Spirit Airlines is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in less than a year.
Spirit Airlines, struggling to find crews and flight attendants to staff its airplanes, has canceled more than 250 flights since Friday, Feb. 13, with many of them stranding passengers at South Florida airports.
Several Palm Beach International Airport flights to Atlantic City and Newark, New Jersey, have been canceled throughout the past seven days, according to the AirAdvisor and Spirit Airlines websites.
The airline, currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in less than year, has acknowledged that it has been experiencing flight cancellations and delays tied to staffing shortages.
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, where Spirit Airlines is the dominant carrier, has been among the most heavily affected airports in the country. Spirit is not a dominant airline at Palm Beach International but it, too, has been experiencing cancellations as well as significant delays relating to Spirit flights. Also heavily affected is Orlando International Airport.
Spirit’s ongoing struggles
Spirit Airlines recently sold 20 aircraft, most of which had not been in active service. The company’s CEO Dave Davis has said the fleet reduction is designed to ensure the long-term success of the company.
A Louisiana businessman, John Miller, is looking to put together investors to buy the airline. He sees the low stock price, 3 cents, as an opportunity to acquire and restructure the company. Miller told WAFB-TV in New Orleans that if his investment group purchases Spirit, it would make Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport its hub.
Mike McCormick, managing partner of the consulting firm Travel Again Advisory, said the airline’s rash of cancellations by themselves doesn’t mean that Spirit cannot survive.
“Airlines fail because of prolonged cash flow deterioration, not because of one difficult operational week. The bigger question is whether this is a short-term operational breakdown or part of a broader pattern,” he said.
“And if reliability concerns begin to affect booking behavior, especially in a highly competitive South Florida market, that becomes more consequential. Spirit’s customers are price-sensitive, but they also have alternatives. If disruptions feel systemic rather than isolated, competitors will benefit.”
Spirit Airlines tried to merge with Frontier Airlines in 2022 but shareholders rejected Frontier’s offer after JetBlue offered a much higher price of $3.8 billion. However, a federal judge blocked the JetBlue merger in January 2024, and Spirit has faced challenges ever since.
Spirit’s ultra‑low‑cost carrier model — rock‑bottom base fares paired with fees for nearly everything else — was highly profitable in the 2010s. That model has been hit hard by higher fuel prices, labor costs and maintenance expenses. In addition, legacy airlines have offered lower prices on some of their seats, resulting in a loss of Spirit’s customer base.
McCormick said ultra-low-cost structure works well when operations are running smoothly, but it also means there’s less cushion in the system when disruptions occur. When something breaks, the ripple effects can compound, he said, which is what occurred at major Florida airports in the past week.
“Spirit’s model is incredibly efficient when it’s working — but it doesn’t have much shock absorption when it’s not,” McCormick said, noting that the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport is particularly exposed because it’s a core base for Spirit. A disruption there doesn’t just affect local travelers. It reverberates through their broader network.
“Operational meltdowns don’t kill airlines overnight — but they’re often the first visible sign that the margin for error is disappearing.”
Mike Diamond is a journalist atThe Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at mdiamond@pbpost.com.