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.
Biden’s rationale for blocking the merger was to “promote competition,” arguing that a merger of the two small airlines would cause the “big four” airlines to raise prices. This claim was dubious at best. Still, regardless of your thoughts on the Iran war, the subsequent shutdown of most trade through the Strait of Hormuz has predictably sent fuel prices soaring. Jet fuel is one of the largest expenses for any airline, typically accounting for 20% to 40% of total operating costs. The price of jet fuel has increased by 55% since the beginning of the war, and low-profit margin companies such as Spirit are obviously among the hardest hit.
But we should be clear about the ultimate cause of Spirit’s crisis: These troubles are due to the government preventing a viable free-market solution to its problems, then erasing the airline’s profits due to circumstances entirely out of said airline’s control. Market interventions distort price systems, and every attempt to “fix” the market moves us closer to a system in which prices no longer convey reliable information.
America still has a large middle-class, with 52% of adults meeting that criteria in 2022, as opposed to 19% earning an upper-class income. Despite claims by the Left that Spirit Airlines is necessary to prevent price-gouging, it would be operational malpractice if another airline didn’t fill the gap to provide affordable air travel to the millions of Americans who are looking to save money on flights.
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Spirit and its customers don’t need a bailout. They need the state to allow the market to work. If a larger airline would like to buy Spirit, let it. If Spirit fails, so be it. In a functioning market, failure is not something to be prevented at all costs. It is simply a piece of information to be considered.
Ignoring this information is what got us here in the first place. Enough is enough.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a writer, musician, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.