Anish Moonka@anishmoonka
JetBlue hasn't made a profit in six years. Spirit is on its second bankruptcy in under 12 months. Delta made $5 billion last year. They fly the same kinds of planes to the same airports, but two of them are dying and one is having the best run of its 100-year history.
In the last three months of 2025, Delta made more money from its premium seats than from its economy seats, for the first time ever. CEO Ed Bastian told investors that more than 95% of Delta's revenue now comes from households that earn more than $100,000 a year. Almost every new seat Delta adds in 2026 will be business class or first class, barely any economy at all.
The airline market has split in two. Business travelers and wealthy vacationers will happily pay $1,200 for a seat that folds into a flat bed. Everyone else picks whichever ticket is $9 cheaper on Google Flights. The middle of the market has vanished, and JetBlue has been sitting right in the middle for years.
About 60% of JetBlue's flying happens in New York and Florida, where it has to fight the big legacy airlines on one side and the dirt-cheap budget airlines on the other. JetBlue tried to be the nice middle option. Free wifi and decent legroom, plus seatback TVs that other airlines skip. It never built the luxury cabin revenue that Delta and United rely on. Its rewards program doesn't print money like Delta's American Express deal does. JetBlue owes about $9 billion and pays $600 million a year just in interest. It has lost money in most of the last six years.
Spirit tried the exact opposite and still lost. A pure budget airline with yellow planes and tickets starting at $49. Then travelers changed their minds. They decided paying a bit more for a seat assignment and a checked bag was worth it. Spirit bolted on bigger seats and bundled fares. That only raised its costs without making Spirit feel fancy. Two bankruptcies later, the company had just $337 million in the bank at the end of last year.
The Middle East fuel spike is speeding up a collapse that was already under way. Jet fuel went from an average of $2.49 a gallon in 2025 to $4.88 on April 2 of this year. That is a 95% jump in about five weeks, after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz shipping route at the end of February. JP Morgan estimates Spirit will lose 20 cents on every dollar if fuel stays at current levels. JetBlue will lose about $1.3 billion this year. Neither airline brings in enough rich-traveler money to cover that hole.
If both shrink or disappear, the winners are already picked. Delta, United, and American will walk away with the empty gates and the open takeoff times. Your cheap flight out of Fort Lauderdale just becomes a more expensive flight out of Fort Lauderdale.
