Aviation enthusiasts and watchers in the Americas and around the world have probably heard about the shut down of Spirit Airlines – an airline with 131 Airbus A320 aircraft and serving destinations within the United States, Mexico, central and south America. While major news outlets and Spirit Airlines own statement provide the rest of the real world context, it has been interesting to see how the flight sim community has reacted to the airlines closure as well.
Real world operations cease, virtual tributes pour in
While other outlets have covered this in far more depth and detail than I intend to, I thought I’d start this off with a little real world context. Spirit was a ultra-low cost airline focused on cheap airfares. Over the course of its 43-year history, Spirit grew to become the 7th largest US airline. The carrier appeared to be doing relatively well until 2020 happened. Costs increased, passenger numbers were slow to recover, and Spirit struggled through the next few years. According to the company’s own statement, the recent spike in oil prices seems to have helped to finish them off.
The wind-down follows the Company’s extensive and comprehensive efforts to restructure the business and pursue transactions to strengthen Spirit’s financial position and create a sustainable path forward. Unfortunately, despite the Company’s efforts, the recent material increase in oil prices and other pressures on the business have significantly impacted Spirit’s financial outlook. With no additional funding available to the Company, Spirit had no choice but to begin this wind-down.
I’ve never flown Spirit before and until 2024 I had never seen one of their planes personally. I can’t comment on what it was like to fly them but the airline seemed to have found a dedicated following from some customers while others struggled with issues surrounding reported poor service. One metric the company did do very well on was safety with no hull losses and just one fatality in 43 years of operation.
It looks like Spirit is now history and that means challenges ahead for travellers and, of course, jobs have been lost and livelihoods affected. So this is quite a sombre moment and the flight sim community has been reacting in their own unique way with various tributes.
Community reaction
Spirit is not the first or nor will it be the last airline to cease operations but with a fleet of over 130 aircraft and the iconic bright yellow livery, it has attracted its share of enthusiasts in the flight sim community. After searching around for a little while, there appears to be at least a few virtual airlines (roleplaying airline operations) that are patterned on Spirit. At least one of them has even announced that they will also be shutting down operations too – that’s some intense roleplay.
There are, of course, plenty more unaffiliated folks who have flown their livery over the years. I myself have, in my effort to fly as many different operators as possible, done a few Spirit airlines based flights over the years. Some I’ve written about including this compilation of journeys here and then another here.
Let’s have a look at a few of the tributes that I’ve seen including these posts on Reddit.
And there have been live stream videos out there too including these from OWLZzFS, CptCanada, and A330 Driver just to mention some that I spotted.
Defunct airlines live on in simulation
While airlines do cease in the real world, its a different story for flight simulation which can and does help preserve the history of civil aviation flight. Well known and obscure operators alike have gone out of service or been absorbed into other companies but their names and operations live on in flight simulation.
It’s all part of the spirit (pardon the pun) of simulated flying.
Stormbirds 
Leave a comment