Spirit Airlines drops service to 11 cities amid bankruptcy restructuring

Fred Cromer, chief financial officer of Spirit Airlines, stated: "Spirit is redesigning its network to focus its flying on key markets to provide more destinations, frequencies and enhanced connectivity in certain of its focus cities, while simultaneously reducing its presence in certain other cities." This statement was included in a court filing on Sunday.

Robert Milton, chairman of Spirit's board of directors, told The Wall Street Journal that the carrier intends to concentrate operations at major airports such as Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), and Orlando International Airport (MCO).

Data from aviation analytics firm Cirium indicates that these cuts represent about 3.9% of Spirit's total seat capacity for October. Las Vegas' Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) will see the largest reduction with eight nonstop routes eliminated. FLL will lose four routes.

Industry analysts anticipate additional reductions as Spirit further decreases the size of its fleet. At the time of its August 28 bankruptcy filing, Spirit operated a fleet of 214 Airbus A320-family aircraft but only about 157 were active according to Cromer.

Passengers whose flights are canceled due to these changes are eligible for refunds under U.S. Department of Transportation regulations.