Late-night hosts lament and joke about Spirit Airlines closure
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · May 5
Late-night hosts lament and joke about Spirit Airlines closure
8 articles · Updated · The New York Times · May 5
After Spirit shut down on Saturday, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon and guest host Kat Timpf turned stranded travellers and cancelled flights into punchlines.
Hosts said the budget carrier's demise cost them an easy comedy target, mocking Spirit's statement that all flights were cancelled and customer service unavailable as an "orderly wind-down."
The segment framed Spirit's shutdown as both a travel disruption and the end of a long-running late-night punchline, with comics already joking that rivals such as Allegiant or Frontier could replace it.
With Spirit Airlines gone, will airfares on budget routes skyrocket, or can other carriers fill the gap without raising prices for travelers?
What lessons does Spirit's failure offer about the limits of deep discounting in a volatile global market?