Editorials & Other Articles

Spirit is not keeping prices down. The other airlines are plenty busy, and don’t need the smallish group of passengers that fly on the crappiest airline out there either willingly or because they can’t afford better. They feel no pressure to charge less. It’s like the old story of a group of campers running from a bear - they don’t need to up their running game as long as they run better than the one guy who can’t run at all.

All that Spirit adds to the toxic corporate mix, is the bad example that a good number of passengers will tolerate abusive pricing, encouraging them to also engage in only slightly less abusive pricing. The object lesson of their bankruptcy would be a positive development. The airlines already charge every penny the market will bear, and they will continue to do so when Spirit is a bad memory.