After the air carrier finally shuttered over the weekend, Bernice King hopes Spirit Airlines’ 17,000 former employees don’t get lost in the fray.
On Tuesday, May 5, the 63-year-old lawyer, activist, and youngest child of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King spoke out on Instagram about the thousands of workers now left asking, “What now?”
“There has been a lot of coverage about Spirit Airlines closing abruptly, flights being canceled, passengers being stranded, and travel plans being disrupted. Those things matter. But for many passengers, the inconvenience will be temporary,” she began in the lengthy caption.
“What we cannot move past are the approximately 17,000 workers who are now facing the loss of income, benefits, stability, and the ability to provide for themselves and their families,” she continued.
She added, “Behind every corporate headline are human beings. Parents. Caregivers. Workers who gave years of their lives. People now asking, ‘What do I do now?’”
King urged the community to see the workers as more than numbers and collateral damage, and not to forget them as the news cycle moves on.
“My prayers are with the Spirit employees, contractors, and families navigating this painful uncertainty. May they receive support, opportunity, and the dignity every worker deserves,” she concluded.
Her post arrived days after the budget airline carrier, nearly 34 years in the industry, shut down on Saturday, May 2, impacting thousands of passengers and employees, according to AP News. The carrier completed its final flights on Friday and by Sunday had transported all crew members back to their home bases. News that the end was near first surfaced in mid-April, though company officials remained largely silent about the airline’s prospects, leaving both customers and employees in the dark.
During a bankruptcy hearing on Tuesday, Marshall Huebner, an attorney for the company, confirmed that financial hardship (the company filed bankruptcy twice recently after failing to turn a profit since the COVID-19 pandemic) and rising fuel costs tied to the U.S.-Israel war with Iran contributed to the shutdown, while also apologizing to the public.
“Thank you, and sorry to the American public,” Huebner said during the hearing, according to NBC News.
In its statement announcing the closure, the company acknowledged the disappointment surrounding its final chapter.
“It is with great disappointment that Spirit Airlines has started winding down its global operations, effective immediately,” the statement began, before explaining that all flights had been canceled and that the airline could not assist passengers with rebooking on other carriers. Refunds for canceled flights purchased with credit or debit cards, however, would be returned to the original form of payment.
“We are proud of the impact of our ultra-low-cost model on the industry for the last 33 years and had hoped to serve our Guests for many years to come,” the statement concluded.
Since the closure, reactions have ranged from genuine grief among loyal customers who relied on the carrier for affordable, once-in-a-lifetime trips to outright celebration from critics who long mocked the airline’s reputation. Yet despite the jokes and complaints, Spirit played a major role in democratizing air travel. Experts and economic analysts have warned that losing the carrier could spell the end of affordable flying as we know it.
For now, as King pointed out, 17,000 people and their families have had their lives abruptly upended, and thousands of travelers are scrambling to rebook flights.
