Days after Spirit Airlines shut down in the middle of the night, a lawyer for the defunct budget carrier stood before a bankruptcy judge and apologised to the price-conscious customers who might struggle to find affordable flights in its absence.

"We apologise most specifically to those Americans who may now be priced entirely out," Spirit lawyer Marshall Huebner said in court, thanking all the passengers who relied on the airline during its 34-year run, many of whom, he said, "could not otherwise have afforded air travel".

Spirit's May 2 demise is not the only curveball confronting people planning trips a week before the summer travel season has its traditional US launch on Memorial Day. Rising jet fuel costs tied to the Iran war have pushed up airfares and associated fees across the commercial aviation industry. Two of the remaining US budget carriers just finalised a merger.