Spirit Airlines, LLC v. Transportation Security Administration

── Spirit Airlines, LLC v. Transportation Security Administration ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Date: April 13, 2026 Category: NEW USCA11 Case: 25-10461 Document: 41-1 Date Filed: 04/13/2026 Page: 1 of 11 FOR PUBLICATION In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 25-10461 ____________________ SPIRIT AIRLINES, LLC, Petitioner, versus TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Transportation Security Administration Agency No. B30-19-UF7-UF-27168 ____________________ Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, and BRASHER and ABUDU, Cir- cuit Judges. WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge: This petition requires us to decide whether Spirit Airlines must remit security fees to the Transportation Security Administra- USCA11 Case: 25-10461 Document: 41-1 Date Filed: 04/13/2026 Page: 2 of 11 2 Opinion of the Court 25-10461 tion collected from customers who do not travel. Congress re- quires airlines to collect security fees from their customers to help defray the costs of airport security services. The airlines in turn must remit collected fees to the Administration. If a customer does not travel, airlines may reclaim fees remitted to the Administration on the condition that they refund the fees to the customer. Spirit provides a customer who cancels a ticket a credit toward future travel, which expires 60 days after issuance. When a credit expires unused, Spirit retains the value of the credit (including the security fee) as revenue. The Administration audited Spirit and determined that Spirit owed millions of dollars because it had retained the por- tion of expired credits attributable to the security fee. We agree with the Administration that the fee statute requires all collected fees to be remitted to the Administration, and expired credits do not count as refunds. So we deny the petition for review. I. BACKGROUND After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress en- acted sweeping aviation security reforms. See Aviation and Trans- portation Security Act, Pub. L. No. 107-71, 115 Stat. 597 (2001). To fund some of the new security measures, Congress required the Transportation Security Administration to “impose a uniform fee, on passengers of air carriers and foreign air carriers in air transpor- tation and intrastate air transportation originating at airports in the United States.” 49 U.S.C. § 44940(a)(1). The fee is currently $5.60 for a one-way trip. 49 C.F.R. § 1510.5(a). USCA11 Case: 25-10461 Document: 41-1 Date Filed: 04/13/2026 Page: 3 of 11 25-10461 Opinion of the Court 3 Although the fee was “impose[d] . . . on passengers,” 49 U.S.C. § 44940(a)(1), Congress enlisted the airlines to collect it, id. § 44940(e)(2). And it provided that “[a]ll fees imposed and amounts collected under this section are payable to the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration” by the end of the follow- ing month after the fee was “collected.” Id. § 44940(e)(1), (3). Con- gress also allowed the Administration to “refund any fee paid by mistake or any amount paid in excess of that required.” Id. § 4