Listen: Final Spirit Airlines Flight Asked Tower, “Are We The Last One?” — Then Said Goodbye

The final Spirit Airlines commercial flight to land asked DFW Tower whether any other Spirit flights were coming in behind it. When the answer came back that they might be the last one, the crew signed off with grace — “it was a pleasure working with you guys” — a quiet, dignified ending for the employees who stayed until the end. I’ve included the air traffic audio below.

Spirit Airlines wanted to shut down on a slower travel day. That meant Saturday, because they didn’t have enough cash to make it to Tuesday. Every day they operated they were losing more money.

• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was pushing for a taxpayer bailout. He argued it would be a political win for Trump six months before the midterm elections. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy disagreed, and argued it would be bad for the airline industry. After all, Spirit’s primary competitor Frontier is on weak foot, and their primary competitor in Fort Lauderdale JetBlue is also. There was also no legal basis for the bailout.

• The Trump administration made an offer, but creditors refused. Spirit would have run through the government money, and the government would have taken priority to recover from Spirit’s assets. Accepting the bailout would have made creditors who had already been funding Spirit’s losses worse off. Bondholders offered a deal that wouldn’t have required them to cram down their own recovery, but the government rejected that.

Spirit Airlines failed because its costs went up, they didn’t have the right product consumers wanted, and larger airlines learned to compete effectively against their low fares. United, Delta and American offered a slightly better product at the same price, so customers chose the better product.

Here’s an ACARS message to pilots delivering the news:

Spirit Airlines is processing refunds for tickets purchased through them. If you bought a ticket through an online agency like Expedia, you have to deal with them, of course.

pic.twitter.com/Wz3ilRHD2z

— Spirit Airlines (@SpiritAirlines) May 2, 2026

Here’s air traffic communications with the final Spirit Airlines commercial flight to land, A320-232 registered N604NK operating NK1833 from Detroit to Dallas arriving at 12:17 a.m. on Saturday.

American Airlines: Hey Spirit, from us guys at American, good luck to y’all. Sorry to hear what happened.

Spirit 1833: Tower, hello, Spirit Wings eighteen thirty-three, visual three-five center.

DFW Tower: Spirit Wings eighteen thirty-three, DFW Tower, good morning. Wind two-three-zero at four. Runway three-five center, cleared to land.

Spirit 1833: Cleared to land, three-five center, Spirit Wings eighteen thirty-three.

Spirit 1833: Tower, Spirit Wings eighteen thirty-three.

DFW Tower: Spirit Wings eighteen thirty-three, Tower.

Spirit 1833: Yeah, is there any other Spirit flight coming in after us?

DFW Tower: Uh, let me see… I don’t see anything. I think you might be the last one.

Spirit 1833: Might be a repo flight after us, but I guess this is probably the last revenue flight. It was good tonight. Well, it was a pleasure working with you guys, and I wish you the best.

Here are the last ATC communications between the final Spirit Airlines flight to land, flight NK1833, and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport (KDFW) Tower. pic.twitter.com/yqQhU07zz2

— Turbine Traveller (@Turbinetraveler) May 2, 2026

Everyone is dunking on Elizabeth Warren, always an easy thing to do, but it’s not actually the antitrust case that blocked JetBlue from acquiring Spirit that did in the airline. (It was a different antitrust case under the Biden administration.)

I've warned for months that a @JetBlue–@SpiritAirlines merger would have led to fewer flights and higher fares.@JusticeATR and @USDOT were right to stand up for consumers and fight against runaway airline consolidation.

This is a Biden win for flyers! https://t.co/lJFGS3ucv3

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 6, 2024

Other airlines are rushing into the breach. United, American and Southwest put out statements almost immediately after Spirit formally ceased operations, and within minutes of each other.

• Southwest Airlines is offering distance-bsaed walkup fares to Spirit customers: $200 for flights up to 500 miles; $300 for 501 – 1,000 mile flights; and $400 for flights over 1,000 miles. They’re also encouraging Spirit elite members to take advantage of their standard status match program.

• United is offering $199 – $299 fares on Spirit routes with proof of Spirit travel in the next two weeks. You have to sign up for MileagePlus. Spirit employees remain eligible for pass travel for two weeks to help them “get home safely.” They’re also taking applications saying their recruiters will “prioritize” Spirit alums.

• American says they’ve added ‘rescue fares’ on non-stop routes where they overlapped with Spirit and will proactively recruit Spirit employees.

Frontier Airlines actually put out a statement that they were looking forward to the extra revenue from Spirit passengers even before the airline shut down (when it was still possible, even if unlikely, for a taxpayer bailout of Spirit to come through).

We are ready to support customers who may be impacted if Spirit Airlines ceases operations, with a focus on helping people continue their travel plans with low-fare options.

— Frontier Airlines (@FlyFrontier) May 1, 2026

I’ll miss Spirit Airlines. I didn’t want to fly some of the tightest seats in the industry, but they offered extra legroom and – because it was cheaper to just leave the first class seats on the plane than remove them when Spirit became a low fare carrier – the “Big Front Seat” was often a good value.

However, even if it had survived their turnaround plan involved shrinking, and they had already dropped 60% of their capacity. This summer they were expected to be about 1.7% of domestic seats. It’s sad for consumers who lose access to Spirit’s low fares (although this will help the health of competitors, including Frontier and JetBlue).

And it’s sad for employees who stayed until the end. Many of them will find jobs elsewhere, but unionized pilots, flight attendants and others will have to start off at the bottom of seniority lists with new employers. So it’s never a happy situation.

Spirit Airlines didn’t fail because of high jet fuel prices. They were on the brink of failure already, losing money every day, and with no real plan to turn that around. They had a toxic brand, their costs has risen more than 40% since the pandemic (deadly for an ultra-low cost carrier), and didn’t have the gamut of products to appeal to customers at high enough average fares.