CashNews.co
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Spirit Airlines plunged Wednesday after the budget airline said that it won’t announce quarterly financial results on time while it continues talks with bond holders to restructure its debt.
Spirit said negotiations are progressing toward an agreement that would protect creditors and customers. However, the company said if such a deal is reached, it would be expected to wipe out existing shares.
The stock was down 58% in afternoon trading Wednesday.
The low-cost airline has been struggling to recover from the pandemic-caused swoon in travel. A federal judge blocked an attempt to sell the airline to JetBlue after the Justice Department sued on antitrust grounds.
Spirit disclosed after the market closed Tuesday that it had notified the Securities and Exchange Commission it would be late in filing its third-quarter financial report while it continued discussions with holders of debt that is due for repayment in 2025 and 2026.
If it can reach a deal, Spirit said, it would go through “a statutory restructuring” that would protect creditors, employees, customers and companies that do business with the airline but “is expected to lead to the cancellation of the company’s existing equity.”
The Florida-based airline said it was also “exploring strategic alternatives” — often a euphemism for a sale, merger or restructuring. The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, reported late Tuesday that the airline was discussing terms of a possible bankruptcy filing with its bondholders after merger talks with Frontier Airlines broke down.
The company also gave grim guidance about its third-quarter performance. Spirit said its operating margin would be 12 percentage points worse than last year’s third quarter, when it was a negative 15%. Revenue will be down and expenses up compared with a year earlier.
TD Cowen analyst Tom Fitzgerald said Spirit’s announcement creates the risk that customers will book on other airlines instead, putting even more pressure on Spirit’s liquidity.
Spirit, the nation’s biggest budget airline, has lost more than $2.5 billion since the start of 2020 and faces looming debt payments totaling more than $1 billion.
People are still flying on Spirit Airlines. They just are not paying as much.
In the first six months of the year, Spirit passengers flew 2% more than they did in the same period last year. However, they were paying 10% less per mile, and revenue per mile from fares was down nearly 20%, contributing to Spirit’s red ink.
It’s not a new trend. Spirit failed to return to profitability when the coronavirus pandemic eased and travel rebounded. There are several reasons behind the slump.