Spirit Airlines and the future of cheap flights

It’s way more than fuel costs that pushed Spirit Airlines to the brink of liquidation and led President Trump to muse about “buying” them. Many low cost airlines are struggling due to a canny and calculated set of strategies from bigger airlines that we can think of as ‘revenge of the legacy carriers.’ Today on the show, we go back in time to when Spirit was riding high and pressuring the whole industry to cut costs. We talk with then-CEO Ben Baldanza about his radical vision for cheap air travel and then travel to the present day to hear how legacy airlines beat Spirit and other budget airlines at their own game. Plus, what happens to us passengers if Spirit does go away. Newsletters: Greg’s weekly deep dive The brand new Indicator link roundup Related Episodes: People Express and how flying got so bad (or did it?) Book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life is in stores now. Support: Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Find us on Socials: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Greg Rosalsky, Jacob Goldstein, Zoe Chace and Emma Peaslee. It was produced by Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Alex Goldmark. It was fact-checked by Vito Emanuel and engineered by Jimmy Keeley. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

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Spirit Airlines and the future of cheap flights is an episode from Planet Money by NPR.

This episode is 25:35 long.

This episode was published on Apr 29, 2026.

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