KNOXVILLE, TENN. — Spirit Airlines announced earlier this month that it would shut down after 34 years of service, citing high oil prices resulting from the war with Iran as making continued operations too expensive. The carrier refunded customers who had booked travel after it dissolved.

Among those affected were eight friends of Semmy Abiodun-Adeniyi, a computer science major scheduled to graduate from the University of Tennessee next week. The group had purchased Spirit Airlines tickets to fly into Nashville International Airport and take a road trip to Knoxville for the ceremony. The tickets from Florida had cost around $300 per person.

As of a week and a half before graduation, flights from Florida to Knoxville on other airlines cost more than $600 per person, and some of the friends will be unable to attend the ceremony as a result.

"May comes around, everyone's ready to go and then Spirit just dissolves. Without any kind of warning. We get refunded, thankfully, but being a week and a half out from the graduation all the fares from Florida are egregiously priced and they can't make it up here anymore, unfortunately," Abiodun-Adeniyi said.

"We buy Spirit tickets because we're a bunch of college students, we're broke, and so it's the most affordable option for us," he said.

Abiodun-Adeniyi plans to pursue an MBA after graduation. "It's rough, but, I'll probably graduate again in the future. I'm definitely going for my MBA so that's coming up soon, hopefully the airline we book with then doesn't dissolve," he said.