Spirit Airlines could shut down Saturday

Welcome back. We have some breaking news for you on the fate of Spirit Airlines. CBS News has learned the low-cost carrier could shut down as soon as Saturday. Let's get to CBS News senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave. Kris, thank you for your time today. So it looks like the federal government could have bailed out Spirit. So what, ultimately, happened there? Well, those negotiations stalled around a $500-million bailout. There were three groups of Spirit creditors. Two were on board, but the Spirit bondholders were not. Now, we understand from the president there before he left the White House, he said a final deal, a final offer has been made. He says he would like to try to save the jobs, and they'll have more of an announcement later today. But our understanding is those talks are stalled, barring last-minute intervention. So certainly things could change, but as of now, Spirit is preparing to have to cease operations as soon as Saturday, tomorrow, because they're running out of available cash on hand. We've known for a few days now that their amount of financial runway was measured in days, not weeks. It appears now that that runway is coming to an abrupt end. Now, the airline is operating normally today. There are Spirit planes in the air right now with passengers on them getting to their destinations. The airline is focused on safely operating those flights and, officially, is not commenting on these reports. But we understand from many sources, including those at the federal government, that they have been alerted now that Spirit likely ceases operations in the next 24 hours because they're just simply out of available funds. Yeah, and Kris, there's something you've talked about before about what happens if Spirit Airlines no longer exist. You said prices would be higher for some travelers. Can you tell us more about that? Sure. So a couple of things. For people that have Spirit reservations, if the airline ceases to operate, those would, obviously, be canceled. You'd get a refund from your credit-card company. It's the people that are midtrip that are going to essentially be stuck. Now, we know other airlines are preparing what they call rescue fares. There are plans that other airlines have had put together when Spirit first went into bankruptcy back in 2024. They came out, went back in. So you'll look for outreach from other airlines to Spirit customers to try to get them home, but there are going to be thousands of people, potentially, that have their trips disrupted because the airline ceases to operate. If you have Spirit frequent flyer points, those will likely become worthless. So those are the Spirit flyers. For everyone else, Spirit is about 2% of the seating capacity nationwide. They're not a huge airline anymore. But in the markets where they have a big presence-- in particular, think Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, New York, Detroit-- they do have an impact on pricing. And Spirit says when they exit a route, fares go up by as much as 23%. That's about $60 a round trip. And that's not just for Spirit flyers. That's for everyone.

Wow. Very important to keep that in mind. We'll see what happens with all this. Kris Van Cleave, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.