What Is the Future Of Spirit Airlines (SAVEQ) Stock?

In November of 2024, Spirit Airlines (previous NYSE ticker: SAVEQ) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a number of potential corporate sales and mergers fell through. This led to the company being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. But will Spirit Airlines ever return? Is it worth investing in this company at this low point?

We looked into the company history and what the experts are saying to determine if Spirit could ever make a return to the NYSE, and whether investors should want it to in the first place. We urge you to remember, however, that very little time has passed since Spirit Airlines has emerged from bankruptcy and had completely replaced its leadership team, so any analysis or opinion about its potential financial future or prospects can change at any moment. Until Spirit Airlines makes an official announcement or reveals its plans, the most anybody can do is speculate about what might happen.

Keep in mind that predicting the market is difficult, and you should always speak with a financial advisor before making any significant investment.

Background on Spirit Airlines

Spirit Airlines is among the most famous of the ultra-low-cost airlines, mostly serving North America, South America, and the Caribbean. In 2023, it was the seventh-biggest passenger airline in North America and the largest low-cost airline in the same region.

Starting in 2022, a handful of larger airlines began attempts to purchase Spirit Airlines. Spirit shareholders rejected a big from Frontier Airlines (NASDAQ:ULCC) in February followed by a rejection of JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU) in April of the same year.

JetBlue returned with a second offer in July. The merger would have created the fifth-largest airline company in the United States. The Department of Justice blocked the deal, however, because it would likely result in higher costs, fewer seats for passengers, and overall harm to the industry and customers.

As a result, Spirit’s stock price plummeted by 47%. In November of 2024, Spirit announced that it was filing for bankruptcy and its stock fell another 50%. Company leadership blamed the failed mergers, higher levels of debt, increasing competition, and overall losses for the company’s failure.

Because it filed for bankruptcy, Spirit was removed from the NYSE. Frontier offered to buy Spirit for a third time in 2025 but the offer was rejected.

Additionally, and adding further complications and uncertainty to the future of Spirit Airlines, its CEO Ted Christie quit his position shortly after the company emerged from bankruptcy and shortly before receiving a $3.8 million retention bonus.

Spirit Airlines has not made any statement about why Christie chose to quit, but it is likely because of the optics of receiving such a huge bonus shortly after bankruptcy, and just a couple of years after it forced its employees to take leaves of absence or pay cuts, would probably damage the company’s image significantly. As executive pay and billionaire compensation and contributions to society are becoming increasingly hot topics of social tension, such a huge cash grab at the head of the most recognizable ultra-low-cost airlines would do more harm than good.

That remains speculation, however, and the new CEO, Dave Davis, has taken over the position with a brand-new board, corporate structure, and leadership team. He successfully served as the CFO of Northwest Airlines when it merged with Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL).

No new corporate plans have been announced.

The Pressure of Acquisition for Spirit Airlines

Why were so many airlines trying to acquire Spirit Airlines while it was obviously struggling? The answer lies in income inequality.

As income and wealth inequality gets worse, companies are forced to cater to one of the two growing groups: the increasingly wealthy or the increasingly poor. Most people still see airline travel as a luxury, so as people see their wallets squeezed by the costs of everyday goods, they will cut air travel out of their budget before all other things, along with most other luxuries. Spirit was catering to the lower-income group, so it saw its business increase as more people were forced to travel at low cost. Other airlines had catered to the wealthy, so they couldn’t pivot effectively to the same demographic, and acquiring Spirit was the easiest way to do that.

However, Spirit Airlines undermined its own success by trying to offer more luxurious travel packages and flying options. These more expensive options were costly for Spirit to offer while not having the same return that other premium airlines saw, so they drained Spirit’s profits without giving much return.

Will Spirit Airlines Ever Come Back to the NYSE?

Experts have been quiet on whether or not we can expect to see Spirit Airlines on the NYSE again in the future. This is probably due to a number of reasons.

First, given the number of companies that are trying to acquire Spirit Airlines, it is reasonably possible that it could be bought by a larger company sometime in the near future, which would effectively prevent it from appearing on any stock exchange. During its bankruptcy period, the offers to purchase Spirit dropped in value, and future offers will probably reflect this lower company value.

Yet, with a brand-new CEO at the helm and emerging from bankruptcy, the possibilities are plentiful.

Second, the NYSE has strict requirements in order to apply to be listed on its exchange, but because it is a private entity, it still has wide discretion on whether or not to accept an application, even if the company qualifies under its requirements.

The NYSE has a significant interest in making sure its market is safe, reliable, and profitable. It is not in the NYSE’s interest to allow companies that are likely to go bankrupt or post regular losses into its exchange.

The qualifications to apply to the NYSE include having over 400 shareholders who collectively own at least 100 shares in the company but also have 1.1 million shares of stock traded publicly with a company market value of at least $40 million. The company must maintain a pre-tax income of $10 million each year for three years, among other technical requirements.

The NYSE also considers other subjective factors before admitting a company onto its trading floor. These include aspects of the company that might damage or harm its investors or the public interest, or if preventing a company’s listing is in its investors’ best interest. It also considers the company’s business model, its products, market, regulatory history and controversies, the current leadership of the company and its activities and history, the company’s reputation, its financial integrity, and predictions about its financial future.

In short, if a company is too risky, too shady, too new, too debt-ridden, illegal, chaotic, or otherwise damages the reputation of the NYSE, its application will be denied.

Since Spirit Airlines has already declared bankruptcy and has not yet had enough time to post positive returns and a working business model since then, it is unlikely the NYSE will be in a rush to accept Spirit’s application any time soon.

That being said, there is no rule or provision that prevents Spirit Airlines from ever returning to the NYSE, but according to expert opinions and the potential future of the company, we wouldn’t bet on it happening in the near future.

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