Not Everyone Is On Board With Using Your Money To Bail Out A Failing Airline

Some conservatives are pushing back against a possible federal government deal to avoid Spirit Airlines’ collapse, as the company struggles to emerge from bankruptcy.

The Trump administration is weighing a $500 million bailout that could result in the federal government taking a significant ownership stake in the budget airline, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Several Republican lawmakers blasted the idea.

“If Spirit’s creditors or other potential investors don’t think they can run it profitably coming out of its second bankruptcy in under two years, I doubt the US Government can either. Not the best use of taxpayer dollars,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) posted to X on Wednesday.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) described the proposal on social media as “an absolutely TERRIBLE idea.”

“The TARP corporate bailouts were a huge mistake & the government doesn’t know a damn thing about running a failed budget airline (that the Biden admin killed),” he continued, referencing the 2008 recession-era Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Outside groups on the Right also weighed in. Advancing American Freedom, an organization aligned with former Vice President Mike Pence, released a memo slamming a possible deal.

“Why should taxpayers bail out one company that has been uniquely unprepared?” the memo asked. “American families shouldn’t be forced to bail out Spirit and the shareholders or pay the bill to see if the federal government can run an airline.”

Labor groups, however, expressed support for the potential federal assistance. The Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), argued that federal intervention could protect jobs and stabilize the airline.

“Federal relief is not a handout,” said Capt. Ryan P. Muller, chair of the Spirit Airlines ALPA Master Executive Council (MEC). “It is a loan that will allow the airline to finish the work that is already well underway, and it is the right call for 14,000 workers, nearly 2,000 pilots, the families who depend on those paychecks, and the millions of passengers who rely on affordable air travel.”

On the Left, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) blamed the war with Iran for the airline’s demise.

“Donald Trump’s war with Iran caused the sky-high fuel prices that finally did Spirit Airlines in. What do the American people get out of this taxpayer bailout? Will the failed airline executives be held accountable?” Warren posted on X.

The White House has not confirmed whether a bailout is on the table, but pointed to a Biden-era lawsuit that led to the rejection of the Spirit-JetBlue merger.

“Spirit Airlines would be on a much firmer financial footing had the Biden administration not recklessly blocked the airline’s merger with JetBlue,” White House Spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.

President Donald Trump told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he would prefer a private-sector solution, saying he would “love somebody to buy Spirit, it’s 14,000 jobs.”

Economist Peter St. Onge of The Heritage Foundation told The Daily Wire that the merger likely led to the airline’s decline.

“The main thing that drove them over the edge was blocking the JetBlue merger,” St. Onge said. “On the day that it was denied, their stock fell 47%. And the big picture here is that the low-cost carriers can’t pass anything on, right? They have razor-thin margins, like 2 or 3%. So they need scale in order to survive.”