Political blame game begins and passengers left adrift after Spirit ceases operations

US airlines and government officials battled on Saturday to deal with stranded passengers and stricken employees after discount carrier Spirit Airlines abruptly ceased operations – and a political and business blame game got under way over the collapse of the low-cost carrier.“If you have a flight scheduled with Spirit Airlines, don’t show up at the airport; there will be no one here to assist you,” the US secretary of transportation, Sean Duffy, warned at a press conference after laying out measures for customers booked with the Florida-based company to obtain refunds or find discounted flights on other airlines.Spirit’s airport check-in desks sat empty across the country on Saturday after the company went out of business in the early hours, posting on its website that after 34 years of flying it had “started an orderly wind-down of our operations, effective immediately”.At the Orlando international airport overnight, a digital departure display sign was filled with bright red notifications of canceled Spirit flights.There were no more Spirit planes in the air, with their distinctive bright yellow paint, after the last flight landed in Dallas, Texas, after midnight and Spirit’s management announced it was the end, after talks for a government rescue failed

Spirit Airlines ceases operations and US transportation secretary announces measures to help passengers

The US secretary of transportation, Sean Duffy, has announced a series of measures to help Spirit Airlines passengers following the low-cost airline’s collapse early on Saturday after running out of cash and the failure of rescue talks with the Trump administration.Duffy said that larger US airlines, including United, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest, had agreed to cap ticket prices specifically for Spirit customers who need to rebook canceled flights, subject to a Spirit flight confirmation number and proof of payment.American Airlines and Delta Air Lines would also offer reduced fares on high-volume Spirit routes, and ultra-low-cost carrier Allegiant has committed to freezing fares across routes that overlap with the failed carrier. A third airline, Frontier, would offer a 50% base-fare reduction to affected travelers, it was announced.Duffy also said in a statement on X that most major US carriers will extend travel pass benefits and spare seats to Spirit pilots, flight attendants and other employees who need to return home after being stranded by the company’s collapse

Less financial stability, smaller social safety nets: inside the gen Z investing boom

Apps, AI tools and shaky job prospects are pushing gen Z into markets earlier, blending caution with risk-takingAmbrico Ranginui first heard of cryptocurrencies when he was 12 years old. By the time he was 16, he had saved enough from birthday gifts and his allowance to invest.“Growing up in a single-mum household, it made me quite a determined person to get ahead,” Ranginui said. “I wanted to find new avenues to make money and crypto was so fascinating at the time.”He’s part of a new boom of gen Z investors who have jumped into markets more enthusiastically than previous generations, and are putting money into everything from safe-haven bonds to AI startups, earlier than ever before

Exxon and Chevron quarterly earnings fall despite soaring oil prices

Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported drops in profit in their first quarter despite surging oil prices, a result of stalled deliveries and supply disruptions in the Middle East.Exxon’s quarterly earnings fell to $4.2bn from about $7.7bn the same quarter last year, a decline of about 46%, while Chevron’s profits fell to $2.2bn from about $3

Firm bookings, fast refunds: easyJet and On The Beach aim to reassure jittery travellers with holiday pledges

Forget the best infinity pool or alluring sea view: travel firms are now competing for the summer holidaymakers’ pound with pledges of the least likely cancellation – or the fastest refund.Airlines and travel companies have been vying to announce fresh commitments to reassure jittery consumers who are booking flights ever later since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran.The hostilities have been driving up oil prices, with jet fuel costs rising even more sharply. More worrying for many thinking of a summer trip, as the standoff and blockades around the strait of Hormuz continue, is the prospect of scarcity leading to flights being axed.Some European airlines such as Lufthansa have already cancelled thousands of flights owing to rising fuel costs, while Virgin Atlantic has introduced a fuel surcharge on long-haul flights

Octopus Energy boss: some people would accept blackouts if bills cut

The boss of the UK’s biggest energy supplier has suggested that some households would accept an occasional electricity blackout in exchange for much lower energy bills.A year on from Europe’s largest power outage – which left tens of millions of people in Spain and Portugal without trains, metros, traffic lights, ATMs, phone connections and internet access – the chief executive of Octopus Energy argued against costly investments in the UK’s power grid that are adding to household bills.Greg Jackson told an industry conference that many households in Spain, where Octopus Energy has a growing business, would say they were happy to accept “the odd blackout” in return for electricity costs that are 25% lower.“To be really clear, I’m not advocating for blackouts, but if you asked Spanish consumers, ‘would you accept the odd blackout in return for electricity costs that are 25% lower, or don’t have spikes, or a more reliable economy?’ enough of them would say yes,” he said.People would be “far less bothered” about a blackout now than they might have been in the past, Jackson added, because they could continue watching things on their laptop during a power outage