As for Spirit, they were running a bottom-of-the-barrel airline.  Commercial aviation is a hard business in which to turn a profit, even with an exemplary business model.  Spirit’s model was never exemplary and in fact, seemed to almost be like Braniff’s in the years after deregulation—but with less-classy passengers.  Spirit was bound to fail.

It’s a shame all those folks were put out of work…some will get hired by other airlines and others will draw unemployment or take a job at Amazon packing boxes.  The pilot seniority thing will especially hurt the airmen with long tenure.  I sympathize with them.

Ryanair is hugely successful and is by some margin the largest airline in Europe. Sure, people love to complain about it, but Ryanair does a great job at getting passengers to their destinations relatively cheaply and usually on time. The flight experience is pretty basic, but perfectly acceptable. CEO Michael O’Leary can be pretty abrasive on occasion, but he has been the driving force behind Ryanair’s success for over thirty years.

As for jokes, don’t forget there’s always Ryanair!