JetBlue moved quickly to fill the gap. The airline announced plans to add 11 new cities with nonstop service to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Spirit's largest hub, with most new routes launching July 9. New destinations include Baltimore, Charlotte, Nashville, Detroit, Houston, and Chicago, along with two Colombian cities — Barranquilla and Cali — starting in October. Fort Lauderdale departures this summer are projected to reach roughly 130 per day, which JetBlue described as the biggest operation it has ever run from that airport — a figure that would represent a greater-than-75% increase compared with its 2025 flying levels there.
JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty said in a statement that the airline is "in a unique position to help Spirit customers get where they need to go and ensure flights remain affordable despite greater demand." JetBlue also offered $99 one-way rescue fares for stranded Spirit travelers with proof of a valid Spirit itinerary for the same route, for travel through May 6, and capped Blue Basic fares at $299 on overlapping nonstop routes to and from Fort Lauderdale and San Juan through May 8.
Frontier, Spirit's closest competitor in the ultra-low-cost segment, said it already operates more than 100 routes previously flown by Spirit and will add nine additional routes along with 15 daily flights across 18 former Spirit markets this summer. The Denver-based carrier also announced discounts of up to 50% off base fares through November for bookings made by May 10 using a promotional code, and offered a $199 GoWild All-You-Can-Fly Summer Pass.
Between May 1 and May 15, Spirit had placed 809,638 seats on sale across 4,119 domestic flights, data from aviation analytics firm Cirium showed, as reported by Reuters. As of February, Spirit's slice of the U.S. domestic market had eroded to 3.9%, a drop from 5.1% the year before, a decline that tracked its capacity reductions during bankruptcy, according to CNBC.
The shutdown closes a chapter that once saw both carriers competing to acquire Spirit. Reuters noted that Frontier opened that bidding contest in early 2022 with a cash-and-stock proposal, only for JetBlue to top it with an offer that ultimately reached $3.8 billion — a transaction a federal judge threw out on antitrust grounds in January 2024.
