Spirit Airlines’ New CEO Is Sun Country President Dave Davis

Earlier this month, Spirit Airlines CEO Ted Christie stepped down, after leading the airline since 2019. This came after the company went through a quick Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, which it emerged from in March 2025.

The company has now announced Christie’s replacement. He seems like a good pick, but I’m puzzled as to why he’d want this job.

Dave Davis to become Spirit Airlines CEO

Effective April 21, 2025, Dave Davis will become the CEO and President of Spirit Airlines. For context, Davis has up until now served as President and Chief Financial Officer of Sun Country, where many thought he’d eventually become CEO, and replace Jude Bricker.

Here’s how Spirit Airlines Chairman Robert Milton described this appointment:

“We’re excited to welcome Dave as Spirit’s new President and CEO. He brings with him a wealth of experience and a solid track record of accomplishments from his many years in the airline industry. Dave’s background at both Northwest Airlines and, more recently, at Sun Country Airlines, positions him well to lead Spirit’s continued transformation.”

Here’s what Davis had to say about his new role:

“I am thrilled to join Spirit at this critical time in the company’s history. I look forward to working with the more than 11,000 Spirit Team Members to deliver value for our Guests, shareholders and the communities that we serve.” 

On top of that, Trey Urbahn will serve as Senior Commercial Advisor to the company, guiding all aspects of Spirit’s commercial efforts, including network, pricing, and yield management, as well as the carrier’s onboard configurations and offerings.

He’s an experienced industry veteran, who has worked at carriers like Azul, Breeze, Etihad, JetBlue, and TAP Air Portugal (interestingly, all but Etihad are airlines that David Neeleman was involved in, and much of the current Etihad management team is also ex-TAP).

This is a great team, but can they save a sinking ship?

To Spirit’s credit, the airline is appointing quite a smart team of seasoned industry executives. I don’t think you could’ve picked a better person for this role than Davis. However, I can’t help but wonder how generous his compensation structure at Spirit must be to leave Sun Country, an airline that has actually proven successful.

While Spirit recently emerging from bankruptcy sounds great, there’s simply no way that I can envision Spirit having an independent future. The airline is lighting money on fire faster than ever before, and that’s not even factoring in the current situation we’re seeing.

In 2024, Spirit’s financial performance was downright horrendous. The airline had a negative operating margin of 22.5%, and had an operating loss of $1.1 billion. With Spirit emerging from bankruptcy, the airline got help with its debt issue, and bondholders injected $350 million into the airline.

However, nothing about Spirit’s actual business model is improving, and with the pace at which the airline is burning money, it doesn’t seem long for this world. It’ll be interesting to see if the management team can do anything to keep this carrier independent, or if the goal at this point is just to sell the carrier’s assets to the highest bidder…

Bottom line

Spirit Airlines has appointed Dave Davis as CEO. He’s an experienced industry executive who previously served as President of Sun Country. Spirit has a great team in charge now, but I’d argue that they have a near impossible task (assuming the goal is for the airline to have an independent future).

What do you make of Spirit’s new CEO appointment?