Business
Spirit Airlines on track for a $475 million bankruptcy lifeline
A Spirit Airlines Airbus A320 taxis at Los Angeles International Airport after arriving from Boston on September 1, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images News | Getty Images
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Spirit Airlines is making “massive progress” to revitalize the airline, the carrier’s restructuring lawyer Marshall Huebner said in a court hearing Tuesday.
The struggling budget airline has reached an agreement with some of its debtholders for up to $475 million in debtor-in-possession financing, a lifeline that bankrupt companies can use to continue operating, as well as $150 million from a major aircraft lessor, Huebner said. The agreements are subject to court approval.
Spirit last month filed for its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in less than a year after high costs, weaker demand and a host of other lingering problems drove more than $250 million in losses from when it emerged from its first bankruptcy in March through June.
The carrier has been racing to slash costs and recently announced plans to cut 40 routes and furlough about one-third of its flight attendants. The airline is in talks with its pilots’ union and is seeking about $100 million in cuts from that group. Last month, Spirit said it was drawing down the entirety of the $275 million in its revolver.
Huebner, a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, said in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday that people who are pessimistic about the struggling carrier’s turnaround prospects should “say less” and observe what it’s doing.
Spirit said on Tuesday that it now has immediate access to $120 million in liquidity after a motion was granted to use cash collateral.
Spirit is planning to reject leases on 27 Airbus narrow-body aircraft from Ireland-based leasing giant AerCap, 25 of them airplanes that are grounded or will be grounded for inspection due to a Pratt & Whitney engine defect, Huebner said in court. AerCap will pay Spirit $150 million as part of the agreement, under which Spirit would still plan to take delivery of 30 more airplanes, the company said.
Aercap didn’t immediately comment on the plan.
Spirit said it is also planning to reject 12 airport leases and 19 ground handling agreements as the carrier shrinks to cut costs, a plan the court approved.
Another hearing is scheduled for Oct. 10. If the debtor-in-possession financing is approved, $200 million would be available immediately.
“These are significant steps forward in a short period of time to build a stronger Spirit and secure a future with high-value travel options for American consumers,” Spirit CEO Dave Davis said in a news release later Tuesday. “While there’s more work to be done, we’re grateful to our stakeholders who have stepped up to support us during the restructuring.”
Senior secured noteholders at Spirit include Citadel Americas, Ares Management, AllianceBernstein, Arena Capital Advisors and Pacific Investment Management Company, according to a court filing.
Spirit’s competitors United Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Allegiant Airlines have announced new routes in hopes of capturing Spirit’s customers. United CEO Scott Kirby went a step further, saying earlier this month that he expects Spirit to go out of business.
Spirit has struggled for years with an engine recall, a failed acquisition by JetBlue, higher costs, and a shift in consumer tastes for more upmarket offerings. The Dania Beach, Florida-based airline has altered its business strategy to offer higher-end products in recent months.
D.R. Horton signage stands in front of homes under construction at the Eastridge Woods development in Cottage Grove, Minnesota.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
D.R. Horton, the nation’s largest homebuilder, is tapping an artificial intelligence tool from Portland, Oregon-based startup Prophetic to build more homes and address the country’s housing shortage.
Chronic underbuilding since the Great Recession has caused a deficit of roughly 4 million homes, according to analyses from several sources, including Zillow. The supply-demand imbalance has caused prices to rise over 50% from pre-pandemic levels.
Homebuilders are trying to respond but say that the cost of construction, along with the difficult and costly process for acquiring and developing buildable lots, is making that difficult.
“One of the largest challenges to providing affordable housing is the identification, acquisition and entitlement of land suitable for development. We are confident the insights provided by Prophetic are going to help us expand homeownership opportunities for hard-working American individuals and families,” said Jason Jones, vice president of data analytics at D.R. Horton, in a release.
Prophetic has developed an AI-native platform for land acquisition and development analysis. For any potential parcel of land, Prophetic’s software will pull every single zoning manual from every city and county in a state. The company said it is currently operational in 25 states and expects to be in all 50 by June.
“It’s an incredibly large, tedious, detail-oriented process to take tens of thousands of these zoning documents and extract the rules, not only efficiently, but correctly,” said Oliver Alexander, founder and CEO of Prophetic.
Among other things, the system looks at minimum lot size and minimum or maximum density setbacks, which differ by municipality and zone. It updates those quarterly.
“Then it tells you where that information came from, which is the key differentiator,” Alexander explained. “When you have that section title and the page that it came from, that builds trust, and then it becomes ultra-efficient, where you can analyze development potential in 30 seconds instead of two to three hours.”
Alexander said there are a little over 440,000 different ways to describe what you’re allowed to do on a piece of dirt in the states Prophetic has analyzed. Developers need to go through all of that information to figure out if they can build a single- or multifamily housing development on it.
The AI’s large language model-based analysis of these documents at scale can answer the questions and then feed that into search AI, which Alexander calls “the major unlock” – search plus the zone AI information together. At the ground level, with this AI, builders can figure out what they can build, where and how much at a much faster pace, making them more competitive with landowners.
“If you have that much of an edge in your speed to decision, you effectively control your entire market, because before anyone else can decide, you’ve tied it up,” said Alexander.
The Scottish Government has pledged it will “explore all options” to support ExxonMobil workers in Fife, after the energy giant announced it is to close its plant at Mossmorran.
But Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said it was also “crucial” that Labour ministers at Westminster “consider what more they can do for the workers at the plant and take urgent action”.
She spoke out at Holyrood hours after ExxonMobil announced its ethylene manufacturing plant, which produces the base material for many plastics, is expected to close in February.
The move puts 179 workers directly employed at Mossmorran at risk, along with the jobs of 250 contractors – although there is the possibility of 50 staff transferring to the Fawley Petrochemical Complex almost 500 miles away in Hampshire.
In a statement, ExxonMobil said its Fife Ethylene Plant “has been a cornerstone of chemical production in the UK for 40 years”,
However, the firm added that the closure “reflects the challenges of operating in a policy environment that is accelerating the exit of vital industries, domestic manufacturing, and the high-value jobs they provide”.
ExxonMobil said: “We considered various options to continue production and tested the market for a potential buyer, but the UK’s current economic and policy environment combined with market conditions, high supply costs and plant efficiency do not create a competitive future for the site.”
Ms Forbes said she was “extremely disappointed” by the move.
Speaking at Holyrood, she said: “I wish to provide my assurance to the workforce that we will work with them and their representatives to explore all options to support them.”
She pledged the Scottish Government would now “engage constructively” with Fife Council and others to “consider all possible actions to mitigate any impact on the local economy”.
Ms Forbes also promised to convene a taskforce “to urgently consider any actions the Scottish Government, with the limited economic powers we have, could take to mitigate the impact of this decision”.
With the planned closure coming after the oil refinery at Grangemouth was shut down in April this year, the Deputy First Minister also said work to find an alternative future for this site would be expanded to include Mossmorran.
But she said the UK Government must work with her to “secure a future for the site”.
Ms Forbes said: “ExxonMobil has been clear in its announcement today that the UK’s current economic and policy environment does not create a competitive future for its site.”
Stressing that the “levers for an industrial intervention” lie with Westminster, she added: “I believe it is crucial that UK ministers consider what more they can do for the workers at the plant and take urgent action – overdue action – to address the high cost of energy which is slowly crippling industry.”
Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander, however, said that the closure decision was “ultimately a commercial one” for the company.
“This is an incredibly difficult time for the Mossmorran workers and their families,” Mr Alexander said.
“The UK Government has explored every reasonable avenue to support the site, but the closure decision is ultimately a commercial one for Exxon, a company which is facing significant global challenges.
“Our focus now must be on supporting the workforce in the months ahead.”
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the trade union Unite, said it was “utterly disgraceful” that the company had decided to shutter the plant.
“ExxonMobil must withdraw the closure threat and enter into meaningful negotiations with all key players to ensure the future of the plant and jobs,” she demanded.
The union’s industrial officer, Bob MacGregor, added: “Today’s news is devastating for the workers at the plant and the local community as well as the industry as a whole. Unite will do everything it can to support our members through the next few weeks.
“ExxonMobil is one of the richest companies in the world. It cannot be allowed to walk away and leave an industrial wasteland in Fife.”
Robert Deavy, a senior organiser for trade union GMB, which represents contractors on the site, called for politicians to put together a “planned and measured” transition.
“This is more grim news for workers, their families and communities but exactly how much more bad news is needed before ministers protect jobs and our country’s energy security? How many dominoes have to fall?
“Our members do not need more politicians wringing their hands or making more speeches promising just transitions. There is nothing just about what is going on and there is no transition.
“We need politicians willing to finally stand up and demand an industrial strategy that protects the UK’s crucial oil and gas while actually delivering a planned and measured transition instead of the economic carnage unfolding day by day.”
Faisal Islam,economics editor,
Rachel Clun,business reporter and
Liv McMahon,Technology reporter
Getty ImagesPeople should not “blindly trust” everything AI tools tell them, the boss of Google’s parent company Alphabet has told the BBC.
In an exclusive interview, chief executive Sundar Pichai said that AI models are “prone to errors” and urged people to use them alongside other tools.
Mr Pichai said it highlighted the importance of having a rich information ecosystem, rather than solely relying on AI technology.
“This is why people also use Google search, and we have other products that are more grounded in providing accurate information.”
However, some experts say big tech firms such as Google should not be inviting users to fact-check their tools’ output, but should focus instead on making their systems more reliable.
While AI tools were helpful “if you want to creatively write something”, Mr Pichai said people “have to learn to use these tools for what they’re good at, and not blindly trust everything they say”.
He told the BBC: “We take pride in the amount of work we put in to give us as accurate information as possible, but the current state-of-the-art AI technology is prone to some errors.”
The company displays disclaimers on its AI tools to let users know they can make mistakes.
But this has not shielded it from criticism and concerns over errors made by its own products.
Google’s rollout of AI Overviews summarising its search results was marred by criticism and mockery over some erratic, inaccurate responses.
The tendency for generative AI products, such as chatbots, to relay misleading or false information, is a cause of concern among experts.
“We know these systems make up answers, and they make up answers to please us – and that’s a problem,” Gina Neff, professor of responsible AI at Queen Mary University of London, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“It’s okay if I’m asking ‘what movie should I see next’, it’s quite different if I’m asking really sensitive questions about my health, mental wellbeing, about science, about news,” she said.
She also urged Google to take more responsibility over its AI products and their accuracy, rather than passing that on to consumers.
“The company now is asking to mark their own exam paper while they’re burning down the school,” the said.
‘A new phase’
The tech world has been awaiting the latest launch of Google’s consumer AI model, Gemini 3.0, which is starting to win back market share from ChatGPT.
The company unveiled the model on Tuesday, claiming it would unleash “a new era of intelligence” at the heart of its own products such as its search engine.
In a blog post, it said Gemini 3 boasted industry-leading performance across understanding and responding to different modes of input, such as photo, audio and video, as well as “state-of-the-art” reasoning capabilities.
In May this year, Google began introducing a new “AI Mode” into its search, integrating its Gemini chatbot which is aimed at giving users the experience of talking to an expert.
At the time, Mr Pichai said the integration of Gemini with search signalled a “new phase of the AI platform shift”.
The move is also part of the tech giant’s bid to remain competitive against AI services such as ChatGPT, which have threatened Google’s online search dominance.
His comments back up BBC research from earlier this year, which found that AI chatbots inaccurately summarised news stories.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity AI were all given content from the BBC website and asked questions about it, and the research found the AI answers contained “significant inaccuracies“.
Broader BBC findings have since suggested that, despite improvements, AI assistants still misrepresent news 45% of the time.
In his interview with the BBC, Mr Pichai said there was some tension between how fast technology was being developed and how mitigations are built in to prevent potential harmful effects.
For Alphabet, Mr Pichai said managing that tension means being “bold and responsible at the same time”.
“So we are moving fast through this moment. I think our consumers are demanding it,” he said.
The tech giant has also increased its investment in AI security in proportion with its investment in AI, Mr Pichai added.
“For example, we are open-sourcing technology which will allow you to detect whether an image is generated by AI,” he said.
Asked about recently uncovered years-old comments from tech billionaire Elon Musk to OpenAI’s founders around fears the now Google-owned DeepMind could create an AI “dictatorship”, Mr Pichai said “no one company should own a technology as powerful as AI”.
But he added there were many companies in the AI ecosystem today.
“If there was only one company which was building AI technology and everyone else had to use it, I would be concerned about that too, but we are so far from that scenario right now,” he said.
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