By Shivansh Tiwary and Rajesh Kumar Singh

Aug 1 (Reuters) - Spirit Airlines ( SAVE ) on Thursday

warned of a steeper loss in the current quarter, citing an

"intense competitive battle" for the price-sensitive leisure

travelers as well as an oversupply of airline seats in the

domestic market.

The airline has failed to report a profit in the last

five out of six quarters despite strong travel demand, raising

questions about its ability to manage debt that is due to mature

in 2025 and 2026.

CEO Ted Christie said Spirit is engaged in "productive

conversations" with bondholders to address the upcoming debt

maturity, calling it a "priority" for the company.

"We are focused on refinancing our debt, improving our

overall liquidity position," he said.

Spirit's shares have fallen more than 82% this year,

compared with a 0.06% decline in S&P 500 passenger airlines

index. Its shares were down about 7% at $2.80 in

afternoon trade.

The Florida-based ultra-low-cost carrier's troubles,

along with those at some of its rival budget carriers, are

making some analysts and industry officials wonder if their

business models are broken.

Christie said while the low-fare business model is not

broken, excess industry capacity is hurting pricing power.

The company said it is aggressively managing capacity to

better match seasonal and daily demand variances, and has exited

42 markets.

Spirit this week

unveiled plans

to tap into a growing demand for high-end travel to boost

its earnings. On Thursday, its executives said the changes would

take more than a year before showing full results.

In the meantime, the company is doubling down on cost

cuts to save cash. It is downgrading about 100 captains and

offering voluntary unpaid leaves to flight attendants to save

costs. It has also temporarily suspended the recruitment and

training of pilots and flight attendants.

It has already announced plans to furlough about 240

pilots and

defer

all aircraft deliveries from Airbus.

Spirit is among the most heavily impacted by issues with

RTX's Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan engines, which

have forced it to ground multiple aircraft and have left the

airline with bloated costs.

The airline said it expects to end 2025 with about 67

aircraft on the ground, compared with an average of about 20

grounded planes this year.

Spirit forecast a negative adjusted operating margin in

the range of 26% to 29% in the September quarter. Analysts at

Raymond James said the outlook implies an adjusted loss of

$2.40-$2.55 a share for the quarter - wider than a loss of $1.20

per share expected by analysts in a LSEG survey.

It reported an adjusted loss of $1.44 per share in the

June quarter, wider than analysts' estimates of $1.36 per share.