Spirit Airlines has filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in a year, just months after the country’s largest budget carrier failed find to sturdy financial footing when it came out of Chapter 11 protection in March, reports CNBC.
Spirit debtholders agreed in the airline’s previous bankruptcy to exchange $795 million in debt for equity, but the carrier avoided bigger changes to cut costs, like getting rid of planes or more dramatically shrinking its footprint.
Spirit now says it will reduce its network and shrink its fleet, cuts that it said will reduce costs by “hundreds of millions of dollars” a year.
“Since emerging from our previous restructuring, which was targeted exclusively on reducing Spirit’s funded debt and raising equity capital, it has become clear that there is much more work to be done and many more tools are available to best position Spirit for the future,” Spirit CEO Dave Davis said in a news release.
In its filing, Spirit listed its assets and liabilities of between $1 billion and $10bn.
The carrier sought to reassure customers that they can continue to book and fly on Spirit after its bankruptcy filing.