Spirit Airlines has ceased its operations, after having filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection twice within a 10-month, most recently in August 2025. The Dania Beach, Florida-based airline – which on 13 March filed with the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York a restructuring support agreement and reorganisation plan – had intended to emerge from Chapter 11 restructuring in the late spring or early summer. Its shutdown comes amid a worldwide spike in the price of jet fuel following the 28 February launch of military strikes against Iran by the USA and Israel. The US carrier says it is "with great disappointment" that on 2 May it "started an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately". It has notified its customers that "all flights have been cancelled, and customer service is no longer available". It adds: "We are proud of the impact of our ultra-low-cost model on the industry over the last 34 years and had hoped to serve our guests for many years to come." Rival US carriers United, American, Delta, Southwest and JetBlue have stepped in to offer "rescue fares" – which have capped prices – to Spirit customers whose flights have been cancelled. At the end of 2025, Spirit's workforce comprised 1,935 pilots, 3,096 flight attendants, 60 dispatchers, 289 ramp service agents, 249 passenger service agents, 410 aircraft maintenance technicians and 1,443 non-unionised personnel, the carrier says in its annual report filed on 16 March with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It adds in the SEC filing that the company was founded in 1964 as Michigan-based Clippert Trucking Company. It began air charter operations in 1990, and in 1992 renamed itself Spirit Airlines. It relocated its headquarter to Miramar, Florida in 1999, and to Dania Beach in 2024. Spirit's fleet comprises 172 aircraft, all but 48 of which are leased.

Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury foresees no need to increase A320neo-family aircraft production beyond 75 jets a month, instead prioritising a stable production rate for a "long" time. During an earnings call on 28 April, Faury responded "never say never" to a question about the possibility of further production increases, but adds that “we are not at that point in time, and that's not the current thinking at Airbus." He states that the plan is to "go to Rate 75 and then we deliver the backlog at Rate 75". Faury highlights investments by the airframer and suppliers to increase production capacity and support Rate 75 "in a stable manner". Last year, Airbus opened additional assembly lines at its plants in Tianjin in China and Mobile, Alabama. At its Toulouse headquarters, the airframer established a new single-aisle assembly line in its former A380 production facility and is in the process of building a second there, as its two legacy single-aisle lines in Toulouse cannot produce A321s. "[It’s] time for us to harvest all the investments, because we are much more efficient when we are stable at a given rate than when we ramp up," Faury says, adding: "As soon as we reach the 75, we stabilize and we keep [it], ideally in our perspective, a lot of years." Airbus had a previous target of reaching Rate 75 in 2025 but repeatedly pushed back the ramp-up schedule amid persistent supply-chain shortages. In February 2026, the airframer said that it expected to "reach a rate of between 70 and 75 aircraft a month by the end of 2027, stabilising at Rate 75 thereafter". It attributed the latest delay to a decision by Pratt & Whitney to provide more spare engines to airlines affected by the GTF inspection programme and fewer engines than previously foreseen to Airbus's assembly lines. The airframer previously studied the possibility of reaching Rate 100 as part of its "Wing of Tomorrow" programme to explore design and manufacturing technologies for a next-generation single-aisle wing.

The price of jet fuel in Europe remains extremely elevated with heightened refinery runs and inflows of fuel from the USA making little difference to pricing. Jet kerosene in Europe was broadly steady at $1,480 per tonne in northwest Europe on 28 April, as assessed by energy information provider ICIS, which is owned by RELX. This compares with under $800/t before the Iran war began in late February, and around $650/t this time last year. Yet, there was some respite for carriers in Asia, with prices of jet fuel for delivery to Singapore declining slightly to around $173 per barrel, against around $181/bbl a week earlier. Traders attribute this to increased refinery run-rates in northeast Asia, using crude sourced from the USA, West Africa and elsewhere to replace Middle East supplies. ICIS notes that the European jet fuel market "remains structurally tight" despite moving away from the risk of acute shortages seen in recent weeks. It continues that "underlying supply constraints [are] still evident", with maximised refinery runs and an influx of product from the USA providing "little respite" in the face of tight fundamentals. Notably, jet fuel stocks in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp import region fell by 7.6% in the week to 23 April, hitting its lowest level in six years, according to Insights Global data. Market participants described the jet fuel market as "just sufficient" for now, although it lacks any meaningful buffer heading into the peak flying season. Traders note that higher refinery runs alone may not be sufficient to balance summer demand. This has led to speculation that prices could tighten again into late-May as demand increases, prompting airlines to impose further capacity cuts. ICIS says that diesel demand has continued to "weaken modestly" on the back of demand destruction, which has "reinforced" the strength of jet kerosene within the middle distillate product range. As well as higher crude imports, price declines in Asia were attributed to refineries, particularly in China, gaining access to domestic crude inventories to cover the loss of imports, says ICIS. Demand destruction was also taking place as carriers across the region cancel flights, it adds. Meanwhile Chinese state-owned refiners have begun applying for government permits that would allow them to resume exports of refined oil products, amid reports of high domestic stockpiles. In North America, kerosene was assessed at $4.10 per US gallon, up from around $2.50/gal in late-February.