Spirit Airlines asks court to extend Chapter 11 plan filing by 120 days
Spirit Airlines' initial plan submittal deadline is December 29, 2025.
Spirit Airlines, which has been involved in its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy case in less than a year since August, has asked the court overseeing its case to extend the deadline to file a plan and solicit votes from creditors to approve the plan by 120 days, possibly extending its court-protected reorganization to at least June 2026.
In a filing on November 24, 2025, Spirit Airlines has requested Sean Lane, the federal bankruptcy judge for the Southern District of New York bankruptcy court, to extend the Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan date and solicitation date by 120 days.
Now, Spirit Airlines is facing a deadline to file its reorganization plan by December 29 and to solicit votes from creditors by February 25, 2026, with the company’s lawyers assisting with the bankruptcy case to move both deadlines by 120 days.
If approved, the low-cost carrier would be allowed to file its reorganization plan by April 28, 2026, extending the deadline to solicit votes from creditors to gain approval for the plan by June 25, 2026.
According to the United States Courts, a debtor, in this case Spirit Airlines, has to propose a “plan of reorganization to keep its business alive and pay creditors over time” during the process.
Darren Klein, who filed the motion on behalf of Spirit Airlines, argued that the extension, considering the magnitude of the case, would be appropriate. Furthermore, the airline’s conduct during the process demonstrated its “good faith desire to successfully and expeditiously reorganize in chapter 11 and emerge as a strong, value airline.”
According to Klein, unlike during the first bankruptcy case, which was a pre-negotiated Chapter 11 reorganization, where Spirit Airlines “focused on reducing debt and raising capital,” the current case’s main goal is to address its fleet, network, and cost structure issues, which only intensified following its first Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, which concluded in March.
“With the filing of [this case], [Spirit Airlines is] now in the process of a full financial and operational restructuring, and since the Petition Date, [has] already successfully completed multiple initiatives to optimize [its] fleet, realize substantial operational improvements.”
Klein pointed out that the low-cost carrier has made significant progress since it filed for the court-protected bankruptcy, finalizing 11 agreements, which included a $475 million debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing, a settlement with AerCap, the aircraft lessor that concluded the airline had defaulted on its leases, prompting the bankruptcy, and negotiating the end of leases for 58 aircraft.
Initially, Spirit Airlines wanted to reject leases for 87 Airbus A320ceo and A320neo family aircraft from October 27, which excluded jets owned by AerCap.
“The months ahead will be focused on many critical topics, including finalizing a go-forward business plan, continuing a marketing process, and finalizing agreements with key stakeholders.”
Rytis Beresnevicius
Spirit Airlines, which initiated its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy case on August 29, ended Q3 with a net loss of $317.4 million. During the month of September alone, the airline’s net loss was $260.5 million, with the month’s revenues contracting to $257 million, while operating expenses grew to $390.4 million, including aircraft rent payments growing from $47.5 million in August to $57.6 million in September.
Rytis Beresnevicius
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