Earlier this month, Spirit Airlines CEO Ted Christie stepped down, after leading the airline since 2019. This came after the company went through a quick Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, which it emerged from in March 2025.
The company has now announced Christie’s replacement. He seems like a good pick, but I’m puzzled as to why he’d want this job.
In this post:
Dave Davis to become Spirit Airlines CEO
Effective April 21, 2025, Dave Davis will become the CEO and President of Spirit Airlines. For context, Davis has up until now served as President and Chief Financial Officer of Sun Country, where many thought he’d eventually become CEO, and replace Jude Bricker.
Here’s how Spirit Airlines Chairman Robert Milton described this appointment:
“We’re excited to welcome Dave as Spirit’s new President and CEO. He brings with him a wealth of experience and a solid track record of accomplishments from his many years in the airline industry. Dave’s background at both Northwest Airlines and, more recently, at Sun Country Airlines, positions him well to lead Spirit’s continued transformation.”
Here’s what Davis had to say about his new role:
“I am thrilled to join Spirit at this critical time in the company’s history. I look forward to working with the more than 11,000 Spirit Team Members to deliver value for our Guests, shareholders and the communities that we serve.”
On top of that, Trey Urbahn will serve as Senior Commercial Advisor to the company, guiding all aspects of Spirit’s commercial efforts, including network, pricing, and yield management, as well as the carrier’s onboard configurations and offerings.
He’s an experienced industry veteran, who has worked at carriers like Azul, Breeze, Etihad, JetBlue, and TAP Air Portugal (interestingly, all but Etihad are airlines that David Neeleman was involved in, and much of the current Etihad management team is also ex-TAP).
This is a great team, but can they save a sinking ship?
To Spirit’s credit, the airline is appointing quite a smart team of seasoned industry executives. I don’t think you could’ve picked a better person for this role than Davis. However, I can’t help but wonder how generous his compensation structure at Spirit must be to leave Sun Country, an airline that has actually proven successful.
While Spirit recently emerging from bankruptcy sounds great, there’s simply no way that I can envision Spirit having an independent future. The airline is lighting money on fire faster than ever before, and that’s not even factoring in the current situation we’re seeing.
In 2024, Spirit’s financial performance was downright horrendous. The airline had a negative operating margin of 22.5%, and had an operating loss of $1.1 billion. With Spirit emerging from bankruptcy, the airline got help with its debt issue, and bondholders injected $350 million into the airline.
However, nothing about Spirit’s actual business model is improving, and with the pace at which the airline is burning money, it doesn’t seem long for this world. It’ll be interesting to see if the management team can do anything to keep this carrier independent, or if the goal at this point is just to sell the carrier’s assets to the highest bidder…
Bottom line
Spirit Airlines has appointed Dave Davis as CEO. He’s an experienced industry executive who previously served as President of Sun Country. Spirit has a great team in charge now, but I’d argue that they have a near impossible task (assuming the goal is for the airline to have an independent future).
What do you make of Spirit’s new CEO appointment?
As long as cost per enplanement continues to balloon at many US airports serving high population regions, the ULCC model will continue to struggle. EWR/JFK/LAX/LGA/ORD fees are excessive and continue to increase. There is no real LCC airport alternative in NYC (maybe one day SWF or ISP can do that) or LAX (ONT is too far and also has zero public transit). Same in other cities, where potential secondary airports are either at capacity or...
As long as cost per enplanement continues to balloon at many US airports serving high population regions, the ULCC model will continue to struggle. EWR/JFK/LAX/LGA/ORD fees are excessive and continue to increase. There is no real LCC airport alternative in NYC (maybe one day SWF or ISP can do that) or LAX (ONT is too far and also has zero public transit). Same in other cities, where potential secondary airports are either at capacity or have poor public transit making it cost prohibitive to use as a cheap alternative. This is the major difference between Europe and Asia and the US.
Allegiant worked because they flew from secondary cities to cheaper primary airports, or they walked out as cost per enplanement became unsustainable (LAX). But that has a growth/reach limit and Allegiant has basically topped out with what it can do. Instead Spirit & Frontier both chased growth and we've seen what happened with that.
Why be puzzled on someone taking on opportunity for better job and maybe more money? in addition, Spirit is not a sinking ship. Spirit will be fine with or without OMAAT support. Here in Orlando we love the non-stop option and I fly them every week in the Big Front Seat.
Compensation package going into an environment like Spirit right now may not be great on present face value... but probably has enormous upside if he's able to "complete the mission" and Spirit succeeds. I know why a lot of people went to Frontier with Barry Biffle - the base pay wasn't fantastic even for Directors and staff VPs, the options package for when they went public was extremely lucrative.
But yes, overall these are...
Compensation package going into an environment like Spirit right now may not be great on present face value... but probably has enormous upside if he's able to "complete the mission" and Spirit succeeds. I know why a lot of people went to Frontier with Barry Biffle - the base pay wasn't fantastic even for Directors and staff VPs, the options package for when they went public was extremely lucrative.
But yes, overall these are great picks. Sun Country went through a transformation in a fortress hub from a full service airline to a LCC and took an enormous loyalty and brand hit in the process, but has turned it around.
If he pulls this out he will be a hot commodity in the airline industry. But it won't be easy. Spirit is trying to attract the kind of flyer that has a bad perception of the airline, and for good reason.
It's interesting to see recent reviews of Spirit... and the primary demographic that flies Spirit does look to places like YouTube as travel research. Most reviews lately are glowing especially doing comparison to other airlines for the value... big seat, friendly crews, on time has been very good lately, fast streaming WiFi that's reasonably priced or free for elites (reasonably priced... as in about 1/3 the cost of AA's and free for the big seats)....
It's interesting to see recent reviews of Spirit... and the primary demographic that flies Spirit does look to places like YouTube as travel research. Most reviews lately are glowing especially doing comparison to other airlines for the value... big seat, friendly crews, on time has been very good lately, fast streaming WiFi that's reasonably priced or free for elites (reasonably priced... as in about 1/3 the cost of AA's and free for the big seats).
I have a bias obviously but now that I travel every week, Spirit is definitely a first choice if the schedule works for me. The fact that I can call their elite concierge line and it rings 2-3 times and a live person picks up is an amazing benefit. And the fact I can be in row 1 and board last and the F/A has blocked others from using the overhead bin knowing someone is coming who needs it. That's a free thing but the kind of stuff that'll piss you off and make you stew for an hour on another airline.
My home airports are DTW & TPA. I am a long time Delta loyalist but with recent ridiculous ticket pricing out of DTW and negative changes to SkyMiles and AmEx cards, I haven’t been as loyal as I once was. Since Spirit has a decent network out of my home airports, I matched my Platinum Medallion status to FreeSpirit Gold. I have been flying them more lately and I have been very impressed. Hope they are able to stick around for the long term.