Spirit Airlines airplanes taxi on the tarmac at New York's Laguardia Airport. Ryan Murphy/Reuters

Relatively few people fly Spirit Airlines – but the company could still affect how much you pay for your holiday travel, even if recent government-mandated flight cancellations end.

For years, Spirit has had an outsized effect on fares across the industry. The discount carrier’s rock-bottom fares forced much larger carriers, such as American, Delta and United Airlines, to keep their prices lower. That includes offering lower-priced seats at the back of planes, often on the same no-frills basis as Spirit.

But Spirit, facing severe financial hardship, is now a fraction of the size it was just a year ago. That is impacting fares this holiday season.

Even if flight cancellations because of t

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