High Up but Low In spirits

Spirit Airlines flight 1522 passes over Fairhope’s Rock Creek the afternoon of OCT 20th 2025 while en route from Tampa to New Orleans. Captured 29,600 feet or about 5.5 miles up, the Airbus A320 moves at a groundspeed of 451 knots or 519 mph during the one hour twenty minute flight. The carrier continues to struggle, with news that 365 pilots will be furloughed and more than 150 Captains are to be downgraded to First Officers next year. More than a dozen routes have been cut including Birmingham, Chattanooga and Columbia in the South, with maintenance and warehouse operations in Baltimore and Chicago set to be closed. Spirit has filed for bankruptcy twice in less than a year. Photo shot from Fairhope, roughly 6.5 miles from the aircraft…