How Will Spirit Airline’s Bankruptcy Affect Minnesota Travelers?
The news that low-cost carrier, Spirit Airlines, was filing for bankruptcy has been making headlines. But what will it mean for travelers here in Minnesota?
An airline filing for bankruptcy is probably *not* the news you wanted to read if you're planning on traveling over Thanksgiving or any time this holiday season. And a lot of Minnesotans will be hitting the highways or airways to get together with friends and relatives this year.
According to the latest information from AAA, over 79.9 million travelers will head 50 miles or more from home over the Thanksgiving holiday this year. If that seems like a lot, it is. In fact, that figure is 1.7 million more people compared to last year and 2 million more than before that pandemic in 2019.
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All those travelers will make for a busy couple of days at airports like the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Bloomington. The Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) said over 3 million travelers went through security checkpoints on the Sunday after Thanksgiving last year, a 9 percent increase from 2022. This year, AAA is projecting 5.84 million people will fly domestically this holiday. That’s an increase of 2 percent compared to last year and a nearly 11 percent increase over 2019.
But what if you're one of those holiday travelers here in the North Star State and you've booked a flight with Spirit Airlines? To catch up, the ultra-low-cost carrier announced Monday it was filing for bankruptcy days after revived merger talks with fellow discount carrier Frontier broke off, travel site Thrifty Traveler reported.
According to the Spirit Airlines website, it currently offers over 32 routes from MSP in Minnesota to places like Atlanta, Detroit, Orlando, Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Dallas, Los Angeles, Fort Meyers, Houston, Tampa, New York, San Juan, Miami, Baltimore/Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston, San Salvadore, New Orleans, Guayaquil, Nashville, San Pedro, Cancun, Lima, Medellin, Guatemala City, San Jose, Tegucigalpa, Bogota, Barranquilla, Montego Bay, Managua, and Santo Domingo.
READ MORE: Sun Country Airlines Cutting Service From Minnesota to Five Cities
But there is good news: If you've booked a Spirit flight out of MSP, it appears it won't be affected by this new Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. According to a Spirit Airlines release:
Spirit expects to continue operating its business in the normal course throughout this prearranged, streamlined Chapter 11 process. Guests can continue to book and fly without interruption and can use all tickets, credits and loyalty points as normal.
This is definitely good news, seeing as MSP is the 19th busiest airport in North America and served nearly 35 million passengers in 2023. That's a lot of people making their way to our fair state, right? So keep scrolling to see some of the most common things we native Minnesotans always have to explain to outsiders!
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24 Things Minnesotans Have to Explain to Out-of-Towners
Gallery Credit: Carly Ross
