Just saw that Spirit Airlines actually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in late 2024. Honestly wasn't surprised given how rough things had been for them. They had that whole $3.8B merger deal with JetBlue blocked by a judge, plus engine issues from Pratt & Whitney grounded a bunch of their planes. Pretty brutal timing.

The restructuring deal they worked out included $350M in equity investment from their bondholders and converting about $795M of debt to equity, plus another $300M in DIP financing to keep operations running during bankruptcy. They were supposed to emerge by early 2025, so we're probably seeing that play out now. Stock had already tanked more than 90% before the filing anyway.

What's interesting from an investor relations standpoint is they managed to keep flights running throughout the whole process - bookings weren't affected. The airline basically stayed operational while restructuring, which is the whole point of Chapter 11. Though they did get delisted from NYSE pretty quickly after the announcement.

Analysts were pretty bearish on SAVE at the time, mostly Sell ratings. The company's core problem was higher operating costs eating into margins while competing in a brutal low-cost carrier market. Tough spot to come back from, even with the restructuring.