Spirit Airlines, the largest US budget airline, filed for bankruptcy for the second time this year. Despite a previous restructuring, high costs and weak travel demand led to significant losses. The airline plans to reduce its network and fleet size to cut costs by hundreds of millions of dollars annually. This follows a failed merger attempt with JetBlue and ongoing struggles with engine recalls and intense competition, including from Frontier Airlines which recently added routes competing directly with Spirit.

Prepared by Christopher Adams and reviewed by editorial team.