December 16, 2025 • 7 mins
Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff has the latest travel news including two near misses and is Spirit Airlines going out of business?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let's go over to the Legacy Retirement Group
(00:02):
dot com phone line and check in with one of
our all time faves. It's Jay Ratlift, our aviation expert.
You can check him out at j Ratlift dot com. Jay,
what's going on at Spirit Airlines? It sounds like they're
on a brink of a collapse. What's the deal.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, this last weekend there was news reports out they
were going to make it through the weekend, they were
going to be ceasing operations as of before Sunday night,
and of course a lot of people that were alarmed
and freaking out, and I kept trying to calm everybody, saying,
you know, these are rumorsless wait and see. Spirit of
course was out saying, hey, you know, business as usual
(00:36):
fine going on here, but you have a lot of
anxious travelers. I mean, look, you've made reservations, probably buying
your tickets months and months and months ago. You're flying
during what is in essence, not this week, but the
last two weeks of the year. They're gonna be a
busy holiday travel season. If Spirit Airlines were to cease
operating at any time, well, now you run the risk
(00:57):
of well, yeah, I'll get my money back as they
didn't deliver on their services. But now I've got to
buy a ticket at the last minute to get to
my destination to enjoy the holidays when there's very few
flights left and certainly nothing out there that would exhibit
any sort of a deal. So, you know, it's right
now a kind of a wait and see type approach,
(01:18):
and sadly, for a lot of people that are holding
tickets for Spirit, they're just hoping that the airline will
continue operating, especially through the holidays. Airlines in competing markets
have said in the event there's any service disruption, they'll
try to bring an extra aircraft to try to help
airlift you know, individuals out of some of these impacted areas,
but they're not going to do it for free. I
(01:38):
recognize that this is a not an opportunity to you know,
jack out fares, but the super low fares that we
could buy, you know, eight nine months ago on these
discounted carriers, those are taken. So hopefully Spirit can hang
in there and get through it. They've just had a
run of some really bad luck over the last several years,
and you know, it's been one issue after another.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
They heard you talk about the holiday travel season, the
specifically the Christmas season. You know, we talk around Thanksgiving
that when we set all kinds of records, that windows tighter.
The christmashonka New Year's travel season, it's a bigger window.
So it's are there specific days that are busier travel
days than others at the airports, Like I would imagine
(02:19):
the twenty third, maybe the twenty sixth are pretty busy
travel days.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
They can be in Thanksgiving or excuse me, Christmas Day
is a little bit lighter, although surprisingly it's getting busier
and busier. And you're exactly right, because it's in astute
observation to recognize that the Thanksgiving travel week, Wednesday's the
second busiest travel day of the year, Sundays the busiest
travel day of the year. And typically what happens through
all of that is you have a lot of people
(02:45):
flying in a short and crammed up period of time.
As we're here, it actually begins on the ninth of Exuday,
the nineteenth on Friday is when the end of the
year holiday season begins, and it goes through the fifth,
sixth to January, so it's you know, you've got three
weeks there of of you know, good travel and its
spread out. You're gonna see you know, two and a
half three million people flying on certain days. I don't
(03:08):
see a setting any records. My concern at this point
in time is making sure hopefully we don't have any
weather situations and airlines don't run, you know, have any
technical issues that flare up, like we had at Southwest
a couple of years ago when their computer system melted
down the week of Christmas and just granted people for
days and that. Yeah, there's there's you know, no unseen
(03:28):
issues that take place as we get through this holiday
travel season. It's rough enough on people when they're flying,
let alone the holiday season when they're flying, whether you
know you don't enjoy travel these days, you just endure it.
And it's just like going to the dentist. I gotta
go because I gotta go, and you're gonna, you know,
hopefully be okay. On the other.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Side, he is our go to all things aviation, Jay Ratlift,
jratlift dot Com, so JetBlue, I see dodged a mid
air collision with a US military refueling tanker.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Jay.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
These are not small aircraft hot and the tech nowlogy
how does this happen, How in this day and age
still happen.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
It's a lack of communication, and they're trying to find
out exactly what took place here with the situation that occurred.
He had a Jet Blue flight that was coming out
of a carousel and it's near Venezuela in the You know,
we've got a notice of airmen that noticed it out
to air flind pilots, reminding them that they're flying in
(04:26):
this area to you know, be especially careful because what
you're seeing is a lot of military aircraft, a lot
of unidentified military type aircraft that are flying in the area.
And you had a Jet Blue flight simply taking off
an honest way it went, and as it was climbing
it noticed that there was a US Air Force jet,
(04:46):
a big one, that was in their flight path five
thousand feet in front, and they had to stop their
climb as a result in notifying air traffic control, Hey,
we weren't made aware of the fact that we had
any traffic in the area, and they were a bit
put off, as they should have been, because there was
a lack of communic communication there. Right now, the Federal
Aviation Administration's investigating to see what happened. Fortunately, the airplanes,
(05:11):
even though it's being classified in quotes as a mid
mid air situation where they were avoiding a mid air collision,
they still had adequate separation. But when you're flying at
the speed these jets are flying five thousand feet, you
can close in a pretty short amount of time. That's
you got to make sure that you're on top of things.
And you know, hats off to the Jet Blue crew
for the job they did, and you know, hopefully they
(05:34):
can find out what happens so that we can do
whatever's necessary to prevent it from happening again.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Another incident, a Quantus jumbo jet arrived at La I
assume lax with part of its wing. Miss I saw
the video of this. How does that? How does a
plane land safely with part of its wing missing?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Well, it was one of the flaps that came off.
And what happened was, you know, during the pandemic, these
A three eighty aircraft are the double decker airplanes. That's
the jumbo jet that if you only had coach seats
in it, it could carry eight hundreds. But during that
tempting fate, I think, but during the pandemic, most of
these huge jets were you know, parked. The demand simply
(06:13):
wasn't there. And recently we have airlines like Quantas that
have been slowly placing them back into service, and when
they arrive at an airport, everybody stops what they're doing
and watches. I mean, these are huge airplanes, they just
kind of glide in and I mean they're majestic, so
in this quantics light, you know, pull into lation. Yeah,
it gets the same sort of awe in attention, which
(06:35):
made the fact that part of the wing was missing
a bit of shall we see on the embarrassing side.
But the good news is it was a small piece.
They had already landed. You don't want to see it
on takeoff. You said they saw it on landing, and
obviously the airplane taken out of service, and you're just
glad it wasn't anything more severe, but some sort of
a maintenance issue there. And you know they'll find out
(06:56):
Quantas as we know because if you've watched grain Man,
it's one of the safest airlines on the planet. So
normally these types of things don't happen to Kwanas. So yeah,
it's gonna be interesting to see. Although They did have
a pilot one time that flew for twenty years as
a captain that had a fake pilot's license.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
That was a good I forgot about that one. I'm
still focused on an A three eighty jumbo carrying eight
hundred people, probably all wearing pajamas.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Well, here's the deal. You can evacuate that airplane in
ninety seconds or left.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That's remarkable.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
You can't do in the United States because everybody here
has to collect all their over at storage compartments.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
My laptop, my laptop, don't leave home without it. All right,
we know we dealt with some snow and the cold.
A little quieter today. Any hub delays we should be
wary of this.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Morning in honor of our last conversation of the year.
Unless you need me after this, nothing out there of
any significance. If I was getting paid perdon to lay brother,
I'd be hurt.
All right, let's go over to the Legacy Retirement Group
(00:02):
dot com phone line and check in with one of
our all time faves. It's Jay Ratlift, our aviation expert.
You can check him out at j Ratlift dot com. Jay,
what's going on at Spirit Airlines? It sounds like they're
on a brink of a collapse. What's the deal.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, this last weekend there was news reports out they
were going to make it through the weekend, they were
going to be ceasing operations as of before Sunday night,
and of course a lot of people that were alarmed
and freaking out, and I kept trying to calm everybody, saying,
you know, these are rumorsless wait and see. Spirit of
course was out saying, hey, you know, business as usual
(00:36):
fine going on here, but you have a lot of
anxious travelers. I mean, look, you've made reservations, probably buying
your tickets months and months and months ago. You're flying
during what is in essence, not this week, but the
last two weeks of the year. They're gonna be a
busy holiday travel season. If Spirit Airlines were to cease
operating at any time, well, now you run the risk
(00:57):
of well, yeah, I'll get my money back as they
didn't deliver on their services. But now I've got to
buy a ticket at the last minute to get to
my destination to enjoy the holidays when there's very few
flights left and certainly nothing out there that would exhibit
any sort of a deal. So, you know, it's right
now a kind of a wait and see type approach,
(01:18):
and sadly, for a lot of people that are holding
tickets for Spirit, they're just hoping that the airline will
continue operating, especially through the holidays. Airlines in competing markets
have said in the event there's any service disruption, they'll
try to bring an extra aircraft to try to help
airlift you know, individuals out of some of these impacted areas,
but they're not going to do it for free. I
(01:38):
recognize that this is a not an opportunity to you know,
jack out fares, but the super low fares that we
could buy, you know, eight nine months ago on these
discounted carriers, those are taken. So hopefully Spirit can hang
in there and get through it. They've just had a
run of some really bad luck over the last several years,
and you know, it's been one issue after another.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
They heard you talk about the holiday travel season, the
specifically the Christmas season. You know, we talk around Thanksgiving
that when we set all kinds of records, that windows tighter.
The christmashonka New Year's travel season, it's a bigger window.
So it's are there specific days that are busier travel
days than others at the airports, Like I would imagine
(02:19):
the twenty third, maybe the twenty sixth are pretty busy
travel days.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
They can be in Thanksgiving or excuse me, Christmas Day
is a little bit lighter, although surprisingly it's getting busier
and busier. And you're exactly right, because it's in astute
observation to recognize that the Thanksgiving travel week, Wednesday's the
second busiest travel day of the year, Sundays the busiest
travel day of the year. And typically what happens through
all of that is you have a lot of people
(02:45):
flying in a short and crammed up period of time.
As we're here, it actually begins on the ninth of Exuday,
the nineteenth on Friday is when the end of the
year holiday season begins, and it goes through the fifth,
sixth to January, so it's you know, you've got three
weeks there of of you know, good travel and its
spread out. You're gonna see you know, two and a
half three million people flying on certain days. I don't
(03:08):
see a setting any records. My concern at this point
in time is making sure hopefully we don't have any
weather situations and airlines don't run, you know, have any
technical issues that flare up, like we had at Southwest
a couple of years ago when their computer system melted
down the week of Christmas and just granted people for
days and that. Yeah, there's there's you know, no unseen
(03:28):
issues that take place as we get through this holiday
travel season. It's rough enough on people when they're flying,
let alone the holiday season when they're flying, whether you
know you don't enjoy travel these days, you just endure it.
And it's just like going to the dentist. I gotta
go because I gotta go, and you're gonna, you know,
hopefully be okay. On the other.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Side, he is our go to all things aviation, Jay Ratlift,
jratlift dot Com, so JetBlue, I see dodged a mid
air collision with a US military refueling tanker.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Jay.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
These are not small aircraft hot and the tech nowlogy
how does this happen, How in this day and age
still happen.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
It's a lack of communication, and they're trying to find
out exactly what took place here with the situation that occurred.
He had a Jet Blue flight that was coming out
of a carousel and it's near Venezuela in the You know,
we've got a notice of airmen that noticed it out
to air flind pilots, reminding them that they're flying in
(04:26):
this area to you know, be especially careful because what
you're seeing is a lot of military aircraft, a lot
of unidentified military type aircraft that are flying in the area.
And you had a Jet Blue flight simply taking off
an honest way it went, and as it was climbing
it noticed that there was a US Air Force jet,
(04:46):
a big one, that was in their flight path five
thousand feet in front, and they had to stop their
climb as a result in notifying air traffic control, Hey,
we weren't made aware of the fact that we had
any traffic in the area, and they were a bit
put off, as they should have been, because there was
a lack of communic communication there. Right now, the Federal
Aviation Administration's investigating to see what happened. Fortunately, the airplanes,
(05:11):
even though it's being classified in quotes as a mid
mid air situation where they were avoiding a mid air collision,
they still had adequate separation. But when you're flying at
the speed these jets are flying five thousand feet, you
can close in a pretty short amount of time. That's
you got to make sure that you're on top of things.
And you know, hats off to the Jet Blue crew
for the job they did, and you know, hopefully they
(05:34):
can find out what happens so that we can do
whatever's necessary to prevent it from happening again.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Another incident, a Quantus jumbo jet arrived at La I
assume lax with part of its wing. Miss I saw
the video of this. How does that? How does a
plane land safely with part of its wing missing?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Well, it was one of the flaps that came off.
And what happened was, you know, during the pandemic, these
A three eighty aircraft are the double decker airplanes. That's
the jumbo jet that if you only had coach seats
in it, it could carry eight hundreds. But during that
tempting fate, I think, but during the pandemic, most of
these huge jets were you know, parked. The demand simply
(06:13):
wasn't there. And recently we have airlines like Quantas that
have been slowly placing them back into service, and when
they arrive at an airport, everybody stops what they're doing
and watches. I mean, these are huge airplanes, they just
kind of glide in and I mean they're majestic, so
in this quantics light, you know, pull into lation. Yeah,
it gets the same sort of awe in attention, which
(06:35):
made the fact that part of the wing was missing
a bit of shall we see on the embarrassing side.
But the good news is it was a small piece.
They had already landed. You don't want to see it
on takeoff. You said they saw it on landing, and
obviously the airplane taken out of service, and you're just
glad it wasn't anything more severe, but some sort of
a maintenance issue there. And you know they'll find out
(06:56):
Quantas as we know because if you've watched grain Man,
it's one of the safest airlines on the planet. So
normally these types of things don't happen to Kwanas. So yeah,
it's gonna be interesting to see. Although They did have
a pilot one time that flew for twenty years as
a captain that had a fake pilot's license.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
That was a good I forgot about that one. I'm
still focused on an A three eighty jumbo carrying eight
hundred people, probably all wearing pajamas.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Well, here's the deal. You can evacuate that airplane in
ninety seconds or left.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That's remarkable.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
You can't do in the United States because everybody here
has to collect all their over at storage compartments.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
My laptop, my laptop, don't leave home without it. All right,
we know we dealt with some snow and the cold.
A little quieter today. Any hub delays we should be
wary of this.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Morning in honor of our last conversation of the year.
Unless you need me after this, nothing out there of
any significance. If I was getting paid perdon to lay brother,
I'd be hurt.
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