May 15, 2026
When Spirit Airlines ceased operations on May 2 (1), the fallout for most passengers was an inconvenience. For the small western Pennsylvania city of Latrobe, it was a gut punch.
Arnold Palmer Regional Airport — named after Latrobe's golf legend — had the unfortunate distinction of being the only U.S. airport served exclusively by Spirit, The New York Times reports (2). When Spirit went dark, Latrobe lost its only commercial airline service for the first time since 2011.
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"It's absolutely a setback," Moe Haas, the executive director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority, told The New York Times. "We have people ready to fly. There was a need for them and there's still a need."
A town left behind
Spirit had been flying out of Latrobe for 15 years, going through routes to destinations including Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Las Vegas. At its 2015 peak, the airport handled a record 356,000 passengers, according to the San Juan Daily Star (3), but post-pandemic demand never recovered, with the most recent annual passenger count falling below 120,000.
When Spirit shut down, its lone Latrobe route ran five times a week (4) to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The closure has immediate and painful practical consequences. Haas estimated roughly 20 of the airport's 56 employees would be laid off. The Transportation Security Administration told the Times its staff at the airport would be reassigned elsewhere. The airport's renovation — an expansion that doubled its gates from one to two — now may be no more than a nod to optimism.
Residents who had depended on Palmer Airport for affordable, convenient travel now face a drive of more than an hour each way to Pittsburgh International Airport, and likely higher fares (5) when they get there. "The inconvenience and added expenses" for residents were the central concern flagged by Latrobe's mayor, Eric Bartels, according to the Times (6).
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Why Spirit failed and why it matters to your wallet
Spirit's collapse didn't happen overnight. The ultra-low-cost carrier had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy twice (7), fought off rising fuel costs and spent its final weeks in unsuccessful talks with the Trump administration over a potential $500 million federal rescue package (8).
When that deal collapsed, so did the airline, and without warning for thousands of passengers mid-trip.
The ripple effects stretch far beyond Latrobe. Economists have long documented the "Spirit effect" — the well-established pattern by which Spirit's entry into a market drove down fares across the board, including on larger carriers (9).
The well-established pattern by which Spirit's entry into a market drove down fares across the board. According to Spirit's internal documents, cited by the U.S. Department of Justice in its 2023 antitrust suit against JetBlue's proposed acquisition, average fares fell by 17% whenever Spirit began flying a route (10).
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And according to Inc. Magazine (11), fares rose an average of 14% on the roughly 90 routes Spirit ceased between 2024 and 2025 alone.
"You do not have to fly a small carrier in order to benefit from its presence, because they will bring down the big guys' fares," William McGee, a senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project, told NPR (12). Without Spirit, he predicted, "everyone will be paying more."
The numbers are already backing that up. The Points Guy reported (13) that domestic economy fares were running 27% higher year-over-year as of late April, even before accounting for Spirit's full exit. Frontier has raised fares five times this year.
No safety net for Latrobe
One cruel irony for Latrobe: the town has no access to the federal safety net designed for situations exactly like this. The Essential Air Service (EAS) program — which Congress created after the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 to guarantee minimum commercial air service for small communities — disqualifies any community within 70 driving miles of a major hub airport (14).
Palmer Airport is within that 70-mile (15) threshold from Pittsburgh International and is therefore ineligible for EAS subsidies. That means Latrobe is on its own. Haas told the Times he is in conversations with other airlines about replacing service, and he believes Spirit's historical performance in the market, plus the ongoing terminal expansion, could make a compelling case to prospective carriers (16).
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The bigger picture for travelers
For the 17,000 workers (17) who lost jobs in Spirit's collapse, the damage is immediate. For the rest of the flying public, it's more gradual and perhaps more lasting.
Ravi Sarathy, an international business and strategy professor at Northeastern University, believes other airlines will absorb some of Spirit's former passengers — but with a key caveat: "The legacy carriers will pick up some routes, but not at the same price," Sarathy told Northeastern Global News (18).
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
NPR (1),(8),(12); The New York Times (2),(6),(16); San Juan Daily Star (3); Yahoo News (4); Marketplace (5); CNN (7),(17); Skift (9); U.S. Department of Justice (10); Inc. Magazine (11); The Points Guy (13); U.S. Department of Transportation (14); Google Maps (15); Northeastern University (18)
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With a writing and editing career spanning over 15 years, Emma creates and refines content across a broad spectrum of industries, including personal finance, lifestyle, travel, health & wellness, real estate, beauty & fitness and B2B/SaaS/tech.
