By Jacob Passy and Alison Sider
Spirit Airlines' demise earlier this month threatened to turn Atlantic City International Airport into a virtual ghost town. At the time of its collapse, the budget carrier represented 75% of the airport's passenger traffic.
Then a competitor sailed in. The day before Spirit shut down, Atlantic City airport director Tim Kroll got on the phone with Breeze Airways, a rival budget player. Hours after Spirit called it quits, Breeze had agreed to fill nearly all of Spirit's routes there.
Spirit's permanent grounding on May 2 made it the highest-profile airline casualty in decades -- and set off a dash as rival carriers and airports look to fill the void it left behind.
Breeze, Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines and other discount carriers are eyeing Spirit's former routes serving small airports such as Atlantic City. In bigger markets, like New York's LaGuardia Airport, Spirit owned valuable slots that other airlines could snatch up during the bankruptcy proceedings.
Breeze was in position to quickly swoop into Atlantic City. The Utah-based airline had been set to begin operations there this month, and Chief Commercial Officer Lukas Johnson said Breeze was already seeing a steady flow of bookings before Spirit halted operations.
"There's a core amount of demand here," Johnson said. "This was something that was desperately wanted."
For low-cost carriers, gobbling up routes once served by Spirit is an opportunity to expand at a time when the high-profile implosion has raised questions around the budget business model.
But executives say it's a balancing act. Discount carriers are being tested by high prices for jet fuel and tougher competition from bigger airlines, the same forces that contributed to Spirit's downfall.
A group of budget airlines has asked Congress for relief from certain ticket taxes, and last month sought $2.5 billion in government assistance to help offset higher fuel costs. President Trump told CBS News in a recent interview that airlines are doing fine, and that a bailout proposal "hasn't really been presented."
Meanwhile, carriers are ramping up operations at Spirit-served locations. Frontier has added flights to nine different cities out of Orlando, Fla., and JetBlue did the same with more than a dozen routes from Fort Lauderdale.
Selective service
Airlines such as Breeze and Allegiant, which have largely focused on flying to smaller airports rather than major hubs, said they are being selective in terms of where they are willing to fly, even with Spirit out of the picture.
"We've made it kind of core to who Allegiant is to seek out opportunities that aren't typically served by mainline carriers," said Drew Wells, the airline's chief commercial officer. He described the process of choosing new airports as a "mix of art and science."
In some cases, Wells said, it's a matter of comparing a prospective airport with existing destinations on Allegiant's map to see what might be a good fit. Smaller airports don't necessarily have the same sort of marketing and sales data at their disposal that a larger hub would.
Atlantic City was one of the first airports Spirit served, introducing scheduled service between the resort city and Detroit back in 1992. Airport officials in recent years sought out other carriers, and Allegiant began flying there in December.
Breeze's first flight out of Atlantic City, to Charleston, S.C., had been scheduled for a few days after Spirit shut down. That meant Breeze's ground operations were already in place to handle more flights. "That led to them being able to react quickly because they were set up here," Kroll said.
Bankruptcy hurdles
Other airlines are eyeing Spirit's takeoff and landing rights at larger airports, which could help the carriers add more passengers and attract more loyal customers.
Spirit's slots at LaGuardia could be worth nearly $87 million, according to an April bankruptcy filing by the airline. Industry officials said the slots will draw high interest from other carriers.
At LaGuardia, Spirit was the only major airline operating out of the Marine Air Terminal, also known as Terminal A. Built in an art deco style, the historic building opened in 1940 to serve Pan Am's fleet of flying boats.
The day after Spirit folded, Terminal A sat largely empty, apart from a small group of airport workers redirecting passengers whose flights were canceled.
"Our focus is maintaining operational continuity at the airport while supporting passengers during this transition," said Halimah Elmariah, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the hub.
Other Spirit assets up for grabs include its flight positions and gates in Newark, N.J., Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, among other places. Officials said the process will take time.
"Given that many of the matters involved may need to be resolved through Spirit Airlines' bankruptcy proceedings, no decisions have been made at this time and will likely not be made in the near future," said a spokesperson for the Wayne County Airport Authority, operator of Detroit's airport, where Spirit recently accounted for roughly 11% of passengers.
Write to Jacob Passy at jacob.passy@wsj.com and Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 17, 2026 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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