No to a Spirit Airlines bailout
President Donald Trump is considering a bailout or partial nationalization of Spirit Airlines, which has faced financial collapse following the failed merger with JetBlue and rising fuel costs. The Biden administration previously blocked the JetBlue-Spirit merger in 2024, citing competition concerns, a decision that contributed to Spirit's bankruptcy filing later that year. The article argues that government intervention, not market forces, is primarily responsible for Spirit's struggles and that bailouts would further distort the airline industry.
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President Donald Trump is currently considering a bailout or partial nationalization of the floundering budget airline Spirit Airlines. The president’s instinct to intervene is the same instinct that led Spirit down the path that resulted in two bankruptcies in 2024 and 2025. In 2023, President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice sued to block the proposed merger of Spirit and JetBlue Airlines, where the latter was set to acquire Spirit’s assets for $3.8 billion. A federal judge sided with the Biden administration in January 2024, and JetBlue terminated the deal, worsening Spirit’s financial difficulties. After the merger fell through, Spirit’s stock price plummeted a whopping 47%. The budget airline first filed for bankruptcy in November 2024.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Washington Examiner.
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