After Spirit Shuts Down, Another Airline Also Officially Closes Its Doors This May
It was just on May 2, when the travel industry was rocked by the closure of Spirit Airlines. Despite there being conversations that the US federal government would swoop in at the last minute to effectively bail out the company, that just didn't happen. The powers that be at Spirit were left with no choice but to close their doors. The move was a devastating blow not only to the travelers who felt stranded by the abrupt closure but also to the many employees who found out they were out of a job when they saw the news in the media.
Fast forward to May 11, and another airline is officially finding themselves grounded, shutting down their business. However, this airline's fate was a bit more predictable than that of Spirit's.
Air Antilles No Longer Flying After Nearly 24 Years
Back in 2002, Air Antilles was created as a regional French airline based in Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport in Guadeloupe, and the company was committed to shuttling people between the various islands that made up the French West Indies, including Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, and Saint Barthélemy.
Now, back in December 2025, the Direction de la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (the French aviation regulatory agency) revoked Air Antilles' operating license, citing a failure in a safety audit. With its license revoked, Air Antilles was unable to conduct business as usual, and unfortunately, not having customers prevented them from raising the funds to fix the issues that caused them to fail the safety audit. With no one bailing the company out of financial trouble, it accumulated a debt of over $69 million.
As April 27 came along, a court ordered Air Antilles to liquidate. PerLe Journal de Saint-Barth, "During the observation period, the administrator concluded that it was impossible to present a recovery plan through continued operations, given the size of the liabilities." So, with Air Antilles being forced to shut down operations since December and the court ordering it to liquidate in April, Air Antilles filed to officially close its doors for good on May 11.
R.I.P. to another travel business.
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This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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This story was originally published May 11, 2026 at 7:26 AM.