Spirit Air stock bounces back a bit, airline says holiday travel boosted revenue

Spirit Airlines jumped in morning trading Friday after the struggling discount carrier said a strong holiday travel season boosted its fourth-quarter revenue.

Spirit said it expects to post revenue of $1.3 billion when it releases its results for the final quarter of 2023 early next month. That's at the high end of previous guidance and in-line with Wall Street projections.

Spirit soared more than 20%, to $6.88 per share, in morning trading.

The airline's shares lost more than half their value earlier in the week after a federal judge in Boston scuttled JetBlue’s $3.8 billion proposal to buy Spirit, saying it violates antitrust law.

A sale to JetBlue represented a lifeline for Spirit, which faces $1.1 billion in debt maturing next year.

Spirit and JetBlue said they are reviewing the court's decision and that the merger remains in effect as the airlines evaluate their next steps.

Some Wall Street analysts suggested this week that without an acquisition, Spirit's only viable path forward is bankruptcy.

Spirit, based in Miramar, Florida, last turned a full-year profit in 2019. It has lost more than $1.6 billion since then.

In a regulatory filing two weeks ago, Spirit disclosed that it had raised $419 million through sale-and-leaseback agreements covering 25 planes. The company said it has $1.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents on hand and is assessing options to refinance its debt that matures in 2025.