Alison Sider

After that Thursday call, that's sort of when Spirit starts implementing a plan, which is called Plan Charlie, which is their shutdown plan.

And it was something they'd really never hoped to implement, but it was like, if we have to shut down the airline, how would we do it?

And the wheels start being put in motion.

And it's everything from pulling parts of the website down so people can't book flights anymore to, you know, how are we going to tell employees that don't come to work tomorrow?

So, you know, kind of throughout the day Friday, core teams of people are sort of putting this plan in motion and making arrangements for the airline to cease operations tomorrow.

in less than 24 hours.

So even though Spirit employees haven't yet been told, their website is still up, people can still book flights if they want, but behind the scenes, they're working to get the airlines shut down.

some of our colleagues like went out to airports we heard various things so you know customers got an email like really you know the pre-dawn hours saturday morning and they were told your flight is cancelled do not go to the airports you know all the kiosks had like a message displayed saying you know spirit has ceased operations you know thank you for for all these years there was nobody at any of their gates nobody at any of their customer service counters

Well, I mean, there's like a core group of people who are still working there who are kind of finishing the wind down.

And that number of employees will kind of go down, you know, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days as time goes on and there's less and less to do.

And then its assets will be sold off like its planes, its real estate, even its corporate headquarters are going to be sold.

You know, fuel price spikes have often led to big shakeouts in the airline industry.

It can often be the catalyst that spurs bankruptcies, mergers, just more consolidation.

And I think a lot of people are expecting that to happen again.

And even though Spirit was kind of—it was already closest to the brink, it was already the most vulnerable—

It's the first domino to fall.

But I think people are expecting there could be other airlines, you know, maybe not quite this dramatic, like maybe not liquidating over the course of a day, but that there might be other bankruptcies.

There might be mergers, you know, airlines that are kind of like fleeing to safety and looking for partners.

And we don't quite know when that's going to start, but it does feel like the industry is on the verge of a big change.

Um, yeah, it is.