Spirit Airlines reached a deal to sell 20 of its Airbus jetliners and is recalling some of the flight attendants who were furloughed late last year amid the budget carrier’s financial struggles.

Spirit is in the midst of going through its second bankruptcy in under two years, after it previously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2024 and completed its first restructuring in March 2025. It filed for bankruptcy a second time in August 2025, which prompted the airline to move forward with service cuts and furloughs.

The company said that selling the aircraft will improve its financial situation and the fleet reduction isn’t expected to impact its flight schedule if the court approves the jetliner sales because most of the 20 planes aren’t in service.

“As part of our ongoing restructuring, we have reached an agreement to sell 20 aircraft that have been held for sale for some time. Most of these aircraft are not currently in revenue service,” Spirit said in a statement. 

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Spirit Airlines reached a deal pending court approval to sell 20 of its Airbus jetliners. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

“If approved by the court, this transaction will give us greater financial flexibility. The aircraft involved will be phased out of our fleet starting in April 2026. We do not anticipate any changes to our near-term schedule or staffing as a result of this transaction,” Spirit added.

The company formally asked a federal bankruptcy court for approval to proceed with the sale on Wednesday. Income from the transaction would go to paying off debt related to the aircraft, while also contributing to lower operational costs.

Reuters reported that the first bidder is CSDS Asset Management, an aviation asset manager that agreed to buy the 20 planes for about $533.5 million. If approved, Spirit would seek competing offers starting at around $554 million, according to an agreement with CSDS, and the auction and sale would be held in April.

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JetBlue won a bid to acquire Spirit in 2022, but the deal was blocked by regulators over antitrust concerns. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Spirit Airlines on Thursday moved to recall 500 of the more than 1,300 flight attendants who were furloughed in December due to its ongoing financial struggles.

“As we continue to make adjustments to meet the evolving needs of our business, we are issuing recall notices to 500 Flight Attendants who were involuntarily furloughed on Dec. 1, 2025. Recalled Flight Attendants will be sent a notice on Feb. 12, 2026, and those who accept will return to duty in the timeframe detailed in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.”

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Frontier Airlines attempted to buy Spirit in 2022 and 2025, but faced regulatory barriers in the first attempt and had a bid rejected last year. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service)

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the union which represents Spirit flight attendants, said in a statement posted to the X social media platform that it will be recalled in order of system seniority, with those involuntarily furloughed first.

“This is good news for 500 Flight Attendants and their families and critical to those of us on the line that have faced a grueling operation over the last two months. The company’s goal in recalling Flight Attendants is to ease some of the operational issues since the furloughs,” the union said.

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The union added it will continue to press management on scheduling issues, access to healthcare and other benefits, as well as a dependability policy and other matters.

Reuters contributed to this report.

The U.S. national debt is on pace to break a record set after World War II in four years, while annual budget deficits are projected to balloon to $3 trillion a year a decade from now, according to a new analysis by Congress’ financial watchdog.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a budget and economic outlook spanning the next decade, which projected that federal budget deficits will rise from an estimated $1.9 trillion in fiscal year 2026 to $3.1 trillion in 2036.

Mounting budget deficits will push the national debt higher, with the gross federal debt rising from an estimated $39.4 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2026 to $63 trillion in 2036. That will also increase the amount of debt held by the public from $32 trillion to $56 trillion in that period and with it the public as a share of gross domestic product (GDP), a measure economists prefer to use in comparing a nation’s debt to the size of its economy.

U.S. debt held by the public is estimated to rise to 108% of GDP in 2030, which would surpass the record of 106% set in 1946 as the U.S. was in the process of demobilization after the end of World War II. A decade from now, debt held by the public as a percentage of GDP is projected to reach 120%.

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Making the fiscal picture even worse, the CBO estimates that the debt held by the public is expected to grow faster than U.S. GDP as projected in the years ahead, which could have far-reaching implications for the nation’s fiscal and economic outlook. It explained that could slow economic growth and reduce private investment, while hiking interest costs from servicing the debt.

“The United States’ fiscal position would be more vulnerable to an increase in interest rates, because the larger debt is, the more an increase in interest rates raises debt-service costs,” CBO wrote. 

“The risk of a fiscal crisis — that is, a situation in which investors lose confidence in the value of the U.S. government’s debt — would increase. Such a crisis would cause interest rates to rise abruptly and other economic and financial disruptions to occur.”

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The national debt as a share of the U.S. economy is on track to surge past a post-World War II record in the next four years. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

The budget watchdog added that higher inflation expectations could erode the dollar’s status as the dominant international reserve currency. 

Further, it could cause lawmakers to feel constrained about using tax and spending policies in response to unforeseen events, such as to stimulate the economy or to strengthen national defense.

Under the CBO’s outlook, net interest costs are expected to surge from a little over $1 trillion in fiscal year 2026, representing 3.3% of GDP, to more than $2.1 trillion in 2036, when it would amount to 4.6% of GDP.

Interest costs are expected to account for nearly 14% of total federal spending this year, but would rise to nearly 19% of federal spending in 2036 under the CBO’s projection.

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The rising national debt and growing deficits will make it harder for Congress to enact tax and spending policies. (iStock)

Michael Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, called the CBO’s latest report “an urgent warning to our leaders about America’s costly fiscal path.”

“Improving affordability is a top priority for the nation. Borrowing trillion after trillion takes us in the wrong direction, leading to higher interest costs and higher prices for everyday needs,” he said. “This election year, voters understand the connection between rising debt and their personal economic condition. And the financial markets are watching.

“Stabilizing our debt is an essential part of improving affordability and must be a core component of the 2026 campaign conversation.”

Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), said, “There are no surprises here or bright spots of encouraging news: Our nation’s deficits, debt, interest payments and trust funds are all in terrible shape.

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“Fiscal leadership is not easy — it requires committing to not making the situation worse by withholding support for new legislation that is debt financed, focusing on actual solutions rather than casting blame, and being willing to make tough policy choices that will be the centerpiece of any serious debt deal,” she added.

“This is too important a moment for our leaders to shirk these responsibilities, and I encourage every Member of Congress and the President to take a cold hard look at these numbers and pledge to fix our nation’s finances before it’s too late.”

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the conference call on the financial results of the first 3 quarters of the business year 2025, 2026. I am Sandra, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded.

[Operator Instructions] At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Attila Dogudan, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Attila Dogudan
Chairman of Management Board & CEO

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, and good morning to the U.S. This is Attila Dogudan. I’m together with Johannes, with both Johannes in Istanbul and Bettina and Attila Jr. are joining from Vienna. This time, we are very happy to share our Q3 results, and we’ll be then ready for the Q&A, as always, once Johannes is finished.

We had, again, great 9 months, the best ever result in the history of the company. As you have already seen, I guess, revenues have increased, which you see then on Page 3 in the presentation, by 5% up to EUR 1.236 million in total revenues. If you look at the revenue increase at constant currencies, it’s 18%. This is the first time we report this as well to have a good comparison for you without the FX up and down, so to say.

The EBITDA of EUR 227.7 million means an increase of 15% or 16% and

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our 2025 year-end and fourth quarter results for Russel Metals. Today’s call will be hosted by Mr. Martin Juravsky, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. John Reid, President and Chief Executive Officer of Russel Metals Inc. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the meeting over to Mr. Martin Juravsky. Please go ahead, Mr. Juravsky. Thank you.

Martin Juravsky
Executive VP, CFO & Secretary

Great. Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. I plan on providing an overview of the full year and Q4 2025 results. And if you want to follow along, I’ll be using the PowerPoint slides that are on our website and just go to the Investor Relations section, and it’s located in the conference call submenu. If you go to Page 3, you can read our cautionary statement on forward-looking information. So before I go into detail on the fourth quarter, I want to provide a little context.

I view Q4 and even full year 2025 as continuations of a broader game plan that has been unfolding over several years. And if you go to Page 5, you’ll get a bit of a snapshot of the significant changes over the last several years, including 2025. On the left graph, you see that we generated about $2.2 billion of cash flow since 2020. This has been asset sales such as