One day after Spirit Airlines ceased all operations, travelers in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize are scrambling to find seats on other carriers or waiting out refund delays while alternative fares climb.
The Florida-based budget airline halted flights at 3 a.m. Eastern time yesterday, leaving thousands of passengers with tickets to or from the region without service. Airports across Central America reported empty Spirit counters and confused travelers on Saturday and into Sunday. At San José’s Juan Santamaría International Airport, passengers with return tickets from Fort Lauderdale or Orlando arrived to find no help and no flights home.
Spirit’s routes had connected U.S. East Coast cities directly to the isthmus at some of the lowest available prices. Nonstop service ran from Fort Lauderdale and Orlando to San José in Costa Rica, Guatemala City, San Pedro Sula and Comayagua in Honduras, and Belize City. Those links disappeared overnight, forcing passengers to rebook on remaining carriers.
Many people already in the region now hold useless return tickets. Others scheduled to fly south in the coming weeks are searching for replacements. Spirit instructed customers not to go to airports and said it cannot rebook anyone onto other airlines.
Refunds are moving forward for passengers who bought tickets directly with Spirit using credit or debit cards. Those payments should process automatically to the original card. Travelers who booked through third-party websites or agencies must contact those sellers. Anyone who used vouchers, credits or Free Spirit points will have to file claims through the airline’s bankruptcy proceedings.
Other airlines stepped in quickly to limit the damage. As we reported yesterday, Avianca, the largest carrier in the region, announced it would provide free return flights from Central America to the United States between May 2 and May 16 on a space-available basis. Affected passengers pay only taxes and fees. JetBlue offered $99 one-way rescue fares on select Florida routes for travelers who can show a Spirit itinerary. United, American, Delta and Frontier also placed temporary caps on fares or added capacity on overlapping routes.
At Juan Santamaría airport here in Costa Rica, which handled the largest share of Spirit’s Central America traffic, gate agents reported a surge in walk-up bookings. Similar pressure hit smaller gateways in Guatemala City, San Pedro Sula and Belize City. No official tallies of stranded passengers were released as of yet, but regional reports described crowded ticket counters and full flights for the next several days.
The sudden removal of Spirit’s low-fare capacity is already pushing prices higher on remaining options. Industry data and traveler accounts show one-way fares from Florida to San José or Guatemala City jumping by hundreds of dollars for immediate travel. Longer-term summer bookings remain available but at rates above what Spirit had offered.
