Spirit Airlines Faces Setbacks in Its Pandemic Recovery

The recovery got the better of Spirit Airlines in the third quarter. The surge in Covid-19 cases and its own staffing-related operational issues in August dragged the discounter down and forced it to scale back its recovery plans, including reclassify 2022 as yet another "recovery" year.

“The direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic have lasted longer than anyone could have predicted," said Ted Christie, CEO of the Miramar, Florida-based carrier, during a third-quarter earnings call on Thursday. While every U.S. carrier felt the negative effects of the Delta variant, Spirit's own staffing challenges and subsequent August meltdown when it cancelled more than 2,800 flights over 10 days cost it $50 million in revenue and forced it to completely reevaluate its recovery plan.

And that plan, prior to August, was rosy. The leisure-first recovery played to Spirit's strengths as a holiday-destination oriented airline with more than half of its schedule touching Florida. The airline planned to grow capacity in the "mid-teens" compared to 2021 and return its fleet of Airbus jets to full utilization — or more than 12 hours a day per aircraft. And for investors, it targeted a return to it