Spirit Airlines will keep flying amid bankruptcy protection. I'm David Brancaccio. The airline promises

tickets are still good and schedules unchanged, but there is news today. Spirit Airlines has filed for

protection from its creditors, this after years of losses and a failed merger. Here's Marketplace's

Novos Sappho. Spirit Airlines says it's negotiated

agreements with debt holders and hopes to emerge from bankruptcy protection relatively quickly

in the first three months of next year. In the meantime, it's promising business as usual,

with all tickets, credits, and loyalty programs remaining valid. That's thanks to hundreds of millions of dollars of new investments it has secured from its debtors

in order to keep operating while it restructures its business.

Spirit was the first ultra-low-cost carrier in the U.S.,

but competitors have enticed its customers with their own basic economy fares.

Spirit has lost money since 2020 and had debt payments looming. Earlier this year, it tried to merge with JetBlue, but the

Justice Department challenged that deal, and a federal judge blocked it, saying consumers would

be harmed by the loss of Spirit's low fares. I'm Novosafo for Marketplace.

How many times have I done an airline bankruptcy filing on this program? We looked it up. There

have been about 180 airlines in this pickle in recent decades. The stock market that had been

ticking along strongly in the day since Donald Trump's victory stopped ticking on Friday with the

widely owned S&P 500 index falling 1.3 percent and the NASDAQ falling 2 and a quarter percent.

Some of this are statements by the guardians of interest rates that their cuts in interest rates

may come more slowly, and some of this is uncertainty around who will lead economic policy in the new administration.

Economist Julia Coronado is founder of macro policy perspectives.

Some of the conflicts in Trump's policies and the economic outlook are coming into focus.

So there's a battle over who will be named Treasury Secretary.

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