America’s Low-Cost Airline Playbook Is Broken. Here’s What the Next Model Looks Like.
Photo Credit: A sign for Spirit Airlines at New York's LaGuardia airport. Adobe Stock / kenishirotie
Skift Take
The U.S. has become the hardest place in the world to run a ULCC, and only highly focused models are surviving.
Low-cost carriers in the U.S. have had a brutal few years: The operating margin across the group was in three of the four quarters through Q2 2025.
The global comparison underscores how weak this is. Across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, low-cost carriers delivered consistently positive — often double-digit — margins.
Two forces are driving the U.S. underperformance. First, the carriers are stuck in oversupplied domestic lei
