Spirit Airlines’ latest schedule update indicated that in May, the low-cost carrier has slashed the number of total departing seats by more than 21%, with the airline making further changes to its network as it has reduced its fleet size and, like many carriers across the world, faced elevated fuel prices.
Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that with the latest schedule update, Spirit Airlines removed 495 weekly departures in May, resulting in a reduction of more than 101,000 weekly departing seats during the month, or a 21% difference in departing seats week-on-week (WoW).
There are also more than a handful of routes that have been removed from its schedule. This includes daily flights between Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), and daily departures from Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL).
The full list of routes that have been removed from the May schedule is displayed below:
Reductions have also been made to a number of frequencies. By airport, the steepest WoW cuts have been made to departures from ATL, Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL), Orlando International Airport (MCO), and ORD.
As a result of the cuts, Spirit Airlines’ weekly capacity, measured in available seat kilometers (ASKs), will be 55% lower in May 2026 than the same month last year. This compares to year-on-year (YoY) cuts of 34% in March and 42% in April.
Spirit Airlines is not the only airline looking to reduce capacity. On March 21, United Airlines confirmed that, facing higher jet fuel prices, it will tactically prune “flying that’s temporarily unprofitable in the face of high oil prices,” representing around 5% of its total capacity in Q2 and Q3, which includes the cancellation of flights to Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Tel Aviv Bun Gurion International Airport (TLV) due to the conflict in Iran.
Still, Spirit Airlines’ aims to reduce its fleet to 76 aircraft by mid-August as part of its Chapter 11 plan. The low-cost carrier, which filed for court-protected restructuring in August 2025 with 214 aircraft in its fleet, detailed in a March filing that it had an operating fleet of 131 Airbus A320 family aircraft, including 41 A320neo and A321neos.
Rytis Beresnevicius
