Spirit Airlines and the Death of Leisure for the Non-Leisure Class

"After Spirit Airlines ceased operations, in the middle of the night on May 2nd, a series of canary-yellow airplanes sat on the tarmac at Newark Airport, arranged neatly like children's toys at day's end. Travellers flying in or out of the hub ogled the spectacle, a display of sudden corporate collapse. Now that the airline is officially dead, following one failed government bailout and a couple of failed mergers, seventeen thousand workers are in need of employment, and thousands of customers await refunds."

"Meanwhile, Spirit's jets are being ferried, one by one, to the desert-a storage field at Goodyear Airport, in Arizona, where they await their fate. What was leased will be repossessed to recover debt in bankruptcy court. What was old will be scrapped and sold for parts. What is functional will be recouped by competitors that will benefit from the death of this icon of budget air travel, which facilitated a kind of low-grade freedom for the masses."

"The Administration's cowboy capture of the Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro, on January 3rd, prompted an airspace closure in the Caribbean, stranding many populations, none as humbled as the American tourists, gone to the islands for rest and relaxation over the winter holiday. Airports themselves, liminal spaces that, normally, are pleasantly severed from the lurches of the world, spun out, too."

Spirit Airlines ceased operations on May 2, leaving canary-yellow aircraft parked at Newark Airport and thousands of customers awaiting refunds. Seventeen thousand workers face job loss after a failed government bailout and failed mergers. Jets are being ferried to a storage field at Goodyear Airport in Arizona, where leased aircraft will be repossessed through bankruptcy court, older planes will be scrapped and sold for parts, and functional aircraft will be recovered by competitors. The airline’s death is framed as part of a wider aviation crisis marked by precarity, with disruptions tied to airspace closures and broader political turmoil affecting travel and airports.

Read at The New Yorker