Wolfsburg left in Bundesliga's relegation zone after 4-0 loss at Stuttgart

BERLIN (AP) — Jamie Leweling scored twice and Stuttgart routed Wolfsburg 4-0 to boost its chances of Champions League qualification while leaving the visitors in the Bundesliga’s relegation zone on Sunday.

Deniz Undav started Stuttgart’s party in the 21st and Leweling made it 2-0 nine minutes later after another well-worked team move, before grabbing his second with a deflected shot in the 42nd.

Stuttgart eased up in the second half. Substitute Nikolas Nartey completed the scoring in stoppage time with another deflected shot that squirmed in off the far post.

Stuttgart consolidated fourth place, the last for Champions League qualification, with 10 rounds remaining.

Wolfsburg is second-last after its fifth defeat from a run of seven games without a win. The Volkswagen-backed team’s coach Daniel Bauer is its second this season after he took over – initially on an interim basis – from the fired Paul Simonis in November.

Former Wolfsburg coach Dieter Hecking is reportedly a candidate to return and try to save the team from the drop. The 61-year-old Hecking was in charge from December 2012 to October 2016 and won the German Cup with Wolfsburg in 2015, when it finished second behind Bayern in the Bundesliga and Hecking was voted coach of the season.

But Hecking couldn't prevent Bochum's relegation last year and he was fired in November after starting the second division with four defeats in five games.

Traveling Wolfsburg fans brought a giant banner to Stuttgart saying “relegation fight,” as if they needed to inform the players of their predicament.

Yan Diomande scored the winner as Leipzig kept pace with a 2-1 win at Hamburger SV to stay two points behind Stuttgart in fifth.

Bayer Leverkusen was six points behind Stuttgart before visiting Hamburg for their postponed 17th-round game on Wednesday.

Fares Chaibi scored one goal and set up the other for Eintracht Frankfurt to beat Freiburg 2-0 and leapfrog the visitors into seventh place.

Both goals came in the second half with Chaibi setting up Jean-Matteo Bahoya to seal the win in the 81st.

It’s the second win from two at home without conceding a goal under new coach Albert Riera. Frankfurt’s only defeat in four games under the Spanish coach was a 3-2 loss at Bayern Munich last weekend.

Bayern is the heavy favorite to win the league again after its 3-2 win over closest rival Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker on Saturday.

The Bavarian powerhouse is 11 points clear and has only dropped points in four games from 24 so far this season.

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Wolfsburg's Adam Daghim, left, in action against Stuttgart's Adam Daghim during the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfB Stuttgart and VfL Wolfsburg in Stuttgart, Germany, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (Harry Langer/dpa via AP)

Stuttgart's Nikolas Nartey, center, scores during the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfB Stuttgart and VfL Wolfsburg in Stuttgart, Germany, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (Harry Langer/dpa via AP)

Wolfsburg's Konstantinos Koulierakis, left, in action against Stuttgart's Ermedin Demirovic during the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfB Stuttgart and VfL Wolfsburg in Stuttgart, Germany, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (Harry Langer/dpa via AP)

Stuttgart's Deniz Undav celebrates after scoring during the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfB Stuttgart and VfL Wolfsburg in Stuttgart, Germany, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (Harry Langer/dpa via AP)

Stuttgart's Jamie Leweling, right, celebrates after scoring during the German Bundesliga soccer match between VfB Stuttgart and VfL Wolfsburg in Stuttgart, Germany, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (Harry Langer/dpa via AP)

Spirit Airlines, the scrappy discounter that once rattled the industry with cheeky ads and rock-bottom fares, took its final flight after 34 years of upending the business of flying.

Once worth as much as roughly $5.5 billion on the stock market, the airline known for its bright yellow planes said Saturday it had shut down after its final flight departed from Detroit and landed safely in Dallas.

“For more than 30 years, Spirit Airlines has played a pioneering role in making travel more accessible and bringing people together while driving affordability across the industry,” CEO Dave Davis said in a statement.

The announcement comes after two bankruptcy filings in as many years that allowed Spirit to repay lenders. That was followed in recent months by a final, mad-dash scramble to save money by cutting routes, squeezing concessions from unions and pursuing a potential financing deal with the Trump administration that could have provided a lifeline had it panned out.

But in the end, higher jet fuel prices triggered by the Iran war drained cash from the business at an accelerating pace, forcing it to call it quits.

“This is tremendously disappointing and not the outcome any of us wanted," Davis said.

It began as Charter One Airlines, which ran vacation tours in the early 80s, then grew in popularity and profits two decades later with no-frills “unbundled” fares allowing travelers to forgo basic services — bag handling, seat selection, even the printing of tickets — or pay extra.

Proudly penny-pinching and irritatingly so for many passengers, Spirit was for years run by the famously frugal Ben Baldanza, who ordered his burgers plain, bristled at paying extra for pickles he didn't want, and flew in the same cramped seats as his customers. He was unapologetic about the airline’s nickel-and-diming them, saying the issue wasn’t that Spirit was cheap, but that passengers were seeing an itemized bill for the first time — and didn’t like it.

For all the complaints, though, Spirit’s model became so influential that giant airlines with decades more operating history and global destinations found they had to follow suit by slashing prices and introducing “basic economy” fares.

On its final day of operations, Spirit had safely flown more than 50,000 passengers, a company spokesperson said. The airline was also working to get more than 1,300 crew members back home. About 17,000 employees — some with more than 25 years at the airline — learned Friday they had lost their jobs, many finding out through media reports, the spokesperson said.

Despite its abrupt end, Spirit left behind a reputation that was impossible to ignore.

Kendria Talton, who flew Friday on Spirit from Dallas to Atlanta with her daughter for a dance competition, arrived at the airport Saturday trying to find a new way home.

Talton said she had flown Spirit multiple times because of the price. “Other than that, I mean nobody even likes Spirit,” she said. “They’ve always talked about Spirit for years.”

A key part of that image came from its bold, over-the-top ads that some critics slammed as tasteless and indeed sometimes backfired.

After the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, the company ran a “Check Out the Oil on Our Beaches” ad, playing on the double entendre of suntan oil and the real black stuff.

Next up was a “Weiner Sale” after New York Congressman Anthony Weiner was caught in a sexting scandal, an ad that also included the line, “fares just too hard to resist.” Later came its infamous “MILF Sale,” referring to “Many Islands, Low Fares,” but also referencing, with a wink and a nod, to the sexual acronym.

Ironically, Spirit was also taken down by its own success as more traditional airlines mimicked its offering and began to steal its customers with their own low fares.

In the liquidation, ticket holders will be issued refunds for flights purchased directly through Spirit with a credit or debit card. The airline said compensation for Spirit customers who booked flights using any other methods, including a voucher, credit or points, “will be determined at a later date through the bankruptcy process.”

Spirit had been struggling with losses for years, but its going-out-of-business announcement still came as a shock.

Just a few months earlier this year, Spirit said it would likely emerge from its second bankruptcy in the late spring or early summer after striking a preliminary deal with lenders.

Then the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran four days later, sending global crude prices soaring above $100. Gasoline prices followed closely behind and jet fuel prices more than doubled in some markets.

Spirit struggled especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, amid rising operational costs and its mounting debt. By its first Chapter 11 filing in November 2024, Spirit had lost more than $2.5 billion since the start of 2020.

University of Houston student Angelina Deruelle, 23, was at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport on Friday, Spirit’s final day of operations, after her flight to Texas was canceled. She said the loss of the airline as an affordable travel option would be difficult to accept.

“I feel like Spirit is just affordable, simple, nothing too fancy," she said. "It’s just like home.”

Associated Press journalists Jeff Amy in Atlanta, Michelle Chapman in New York and Daniel Kozin in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.

FILE - A Spirit Airlines Airbus A320 prepares to take off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Jan. 19, 2021, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)