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gblargg 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Some of us don't consume the mainstream news and don't fly.

If you didn't know about the war in Iran and the effects it has had on oil and thus jet fuel prices, I'm not sure what you're doing on HN.

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gblargg 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This story is about a particular airline failing (out of all the others that aren't). Do you think Spirit airline's situation is something serious I should have been keeping up with? I do drive a car and get gas, and the price increase has been modest but not alarming, in the context of the last decade.

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Kwpolska 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The war in Iran was the final nail in the coffin. But they were running out of cash for the past few years. If the Iran situation was so bad by itself, we would surely see other airlines failing now.

	▲	avazhi 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Spirit could simply be the first of several; the effects may also be delayed. WGA isn't looking good either, for a number of reasons. Just because it's the first doesn't mean it will be the only one. It goes without saying but apparently you need to be told that there has to a first here, after all. The war is only 2 months in. Full clarity won't come for 2-3 years. It's likely several airlines will take hits on their balance sheets from this that they won't be able to recover from, but they'll fight or go into hardcore refinance mode or get bailed out before actually going bankrupt, but this will remain the ultimate cause.

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robin_reala 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Small regional airline failing isn’t a big news story in my typical parts of the internet.

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avazhi 11 hours ago | parent [-]

No, Spirit is/was not a 'small regional'.

You asked if this was caused by or related to bad customer service. This was 100% caused by the increase in jet fuel prices due to the war in Iran. Obviously huge swings in jet fuel prices affect budget carriers more than, say, United or American or Lufthansa or Singapore Airlines, which have many (many) more options when jet fuel prices rise.

Many countries, including many third world countries, have regional airlines. It has nothing to do with America in particular, and the usage of that term is not an American-ism. A good non-American example is Qantas and QantasLink, the latter being a regional airline, and the Aussies refer to it as such.

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chrisandchris 11 hours ago | parent [-]

That really sounds line the US is the only country in the world. Considering the world is bigger, I would call Spirit maybe regional, but not small. Ask some europeans, basically no one will know Spirit - as US people may not know e.g. Wizz.

	▲	11 hours ago \| parent [-]
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