US budget carrier Spirit Airlines goes out of business after 34 years

A Spirit Airlines 319 Airbus (Charles Krupa/AP)

Spirit Airlines, an upstart that shook the industry with its irreverent ads and deep discount fares, has announced that it has gone out of business after 34 years.

The ultra-low cost airline that once operated hundreds of daily flights on its bright yellow planes and employed about 17,000 people said it had “started an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately”.