“That’s cute”: Tracking the public feud between Frontier and United Airlines
A US airline feud has two CEOs bickering over who’s better at math.
When Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy last month, it was just the second time a major US airline had filed for Chapter 11 since 2011. The first time was also Spirit, nine months earlier.
The news had some critics — perhaps past victims of Spirit’s carry-on fees — gleefully dunking on the budget airline:
Spirit Halloween won’t even have to change the airline name https://t.co/gKnaKihz7w pic.twitter.com/rQH9eabozE
— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) August 29, 2025
But one unlikely figure who has also piled on happens to be Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines. Kirby has been vocally critical of the discount airline model in the past, calling it “crappy” and declaring it “dead” in an interview with The Wall Street Journal earlier this year.
In the wake of Spirit’s latest bankruptcy filing, Kirby has doubled down, telling the audience at an industry conference earlier this month that he believes Spirit will go out of business (something he also predicted during Spirit’s last Chapter 11).
When asked why he thought so this time around, Kirby replied, “Because I’m good at math.” Kirby also fired a barb at rival Barry Biffle, CEO of Frontier Airlines, predicting that Biffle would be the “last man standing on a sinking ship.”
“That’s cute,” Frontier CEO Barry Biffle said at a conference on Wednesday when asked about Kirby’s assessment. “If he’s good at math, he would understand that we have a [flight] oversupply issue in the United States.”
Spirit had also responded to Kirby’s digs, declaring that the exec “can’t stop yapping” about the company in a post on X.
Scott is finally right about something - it is all about customers. Our Guests love low fares, especially our new Spirit First and Premium Economy options. Maybe that’s why United executives can’t stop yapping about us. https://t.co/OXsXQmukDI
— Spirit Airlines (@SpiritAirlines) September 9, 2025
To the uninitiated, this all might seem a bit extreme for typically buttoned-up airlines. But between these two, it’s actually become pretty routine at this point. Kirby and Biffle also exchanged words last year, when Kirby accused Frontier of “pretending [to be] a business airline.”
“United must be feeling some pressure. We wish them well,” Biffle said in a snarky response.
Since news broke of Spirit’s latest Chapter 11 filing, Frontier shares are up nearly 11%, while United is flat. Year to date, United has gained 11% to Frontier’s loss of more than 25%.
