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Investing.com -- Spirit Airlines’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing has opened the door for rivals to move into its markets, with Bank of America analysts highlighting Frontier Group and United Airlines as the biggest beneficiaries.
“Since Spirit’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on 8/29, carriers such as ULCC and UAL have begun to position themselves to take share,” BofA wrote, adding that the process “will continue as Spirit cuts service to smaller airports and could aim to retrench at the airline’s top airports.”
Spirit accounts for only 3.6% of total U.S. domestic capacity in 2025, but its network is heavily concentrated.
BofA explains that Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Las Vegas, Detroit, and Newark represent 40% of flights, while the top 25 airports cover 83%. On its routes, Spirit holds just 17% market share, compared with legacy carriers’ 70%.
BofA said, “LUV and ULCC are Spirit’s top competitors with 40% and 35% of domestic route overlap in 2H25, respectively, while the network carriers compete on 28% of Spirit’s routes on average.”
But it emphasised ULCC’s particular exposure: “ULCC is most exposed to Spirit on their routes with 27% of ULCC’s routes flown by Spirit, 12 points higher than the next airline (JBLU).”
As Spirit pulls back, rivals are stepping in. “Competition for Spirit’s share has already begun, with ULCC and UAL announcing new routes and additional flights into Spirit’s top airports (Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Las Vegas) as well as airports that Spirit recently exited,” BofA said.
With potential for a further 20% reduction in capacity, BofA expects competitors to accelerate their expansion into Spirit’s markets.