An investor-made website named ‘Spirit Go Away’ blasts the airline and its CEO for the bankruptcy filing.
A Spirit Airbus A321 (Photo: Shutterstock | Ron Adar)
Spirit Airlines looks to trade shareholders for bondholders as it moves toward a restructuring deal that will hand control of the carrier to its creditors.
According to a Tuesday Bloomberg report, the airline said it expected shareholders will lose their investments during its bankruptcy. Shares dropped from around 60 cents on Tuesday to around 45 cents on Wednesday morning after the news broke.
Spirit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month after its merger discussions with Frontier fell through. Spirit’s reorganization plan dubbed “Project Bravo” detailed a turnaround initiative to adjust the carrier’s business model to new customer needs while maintaining low costs.
The Bloomberg report cited Spirit lawyer Marshall Heubner, who said that the carrier had exhausted its restructuring options. On Tuesday, Spirit won approval from a federal bankruptcy court judge to move forward with its restructuring that would likely see shareholders lose their equity in the company with no compensation.
The restructuring – which will be considered for approval on January 29 – would see bondholders swap $795 million in debt for equity in the reorganized airline.
According to the report, over a dozen shareholders sent letters to New York District Judge Sean Lane criticizing Spirit CEO Ted Christie or board members for the Chapter 11 filing and for supporting a deal that would cancel their shares.
One perturbed investor created a website titled “Spirit Go Away” blasting the restructuring support agreement between Spirit and bondholders. The website includes several open letters to Christie, the U.S. trustee representing Spirit shareholders, and Lane.
It also includes links to a song and documents with lyrics to several other diss tracks: “Leaving On A Jet Plane” and “Take The Money and Run.”
Huebner told Bloomberg that while it’s regrettable, the market has “fully understood” for a while now that Spirit is insolvent.
AirlineGeeks reached out to Spirit for comment.
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