Trump says he’s considering buying Spirit Airlines ‘at the right price.’ It might still be a bad deal
By Chris Isidore, Donald Judd, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would consider purchasing the embattled Spirit Airlines “if we can get it at the right price.”
“Spirit is an airline that has had some trouble,” Trump said. “They have some good aircrafts, some good assets, and when the price of oil goes down, we’d sell it for a profit.”
The president did not clarify what a purchase of Spirit Airlines might look like.
But the airline has been on life support for years – and even an infusion of federal cash might not save it.
The possibility of a government purchase of the airline appeared to be new, but the administration had already been considering a unique one-airline bailout of the troubled carrier.
The administration is in “very advanced discussions” over a federal bailout package for the troubled discount airline, Marshall Huebner, an attorney for Spirit, said during a bankruptcy hearing Thursday. While he did not give details of the package, it could come to $500 million, a source familiar with the discussion told CNN.
But Trump’s remarks on Thursday suggest he’s considering going a step further, with the government perhaps buying the airline outright.
The government was considering “helping them out, meaning bailing them out or buying it, just buy it,” Trump told reporters Thursday evening.
In response to a request for clarification, the White House criticized the Biden administration for blocking a proposed 2022 merger of Spirit and JetBlue Airways.
“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. “The Trump administration continues to monitor the situation and overall health of the US aviation industry that millions of Americans rely on every day for essential travel and their livelihoods.”
Spirit did not have an immediate comment on the president’s statement.
Spirit has recently warned it could be forced out of business due to higher jet fuel prices sparked by the war in Iran. The airline has been unprofitable since travel plunged during the Covid pandemic, and it has filed for bankruptcy twice, most recently in August 2025.
Some members of Congress, along with airline CEOs and analysts, say that even a more limited bailout would be a terrible idea. Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton as well as Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren have expressed concerns. The worry is that the government is throwing taxpayer money at a solution that will not save the airline long-term.
Even Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy expressed doubts about a bailout on Tuesday.
“What we don’t want to do is put good money after bad, and there’s been a lot of money thrown at Spirit, and they haven’t found their way into profitability,” he told Reuters. “And so would we just forestall the inevitable and then own that?”
Severe turbulence ahead for Spirit
For years, Spirit was able to use its ultra-low fares to attract customers and fill planes. Then the Covid pandemic virtually halted travel and all airlines experienced deep losses, only surviving through the help of an industrywide federal bailout.
Although it survived, Spirit never really recovered from the pandemic. Even when demand for travel rebounded, most discount carriers continued to lose money. Passengers were willing to pay a bit more for seats with extra legroom or other comforts rather than choose bargain prices.
Airlines work on very thin profit margins, especially for those following Spirit’s business model. They incur high operating costs such as buying massively expensive aircraft and dealing with variable prices: Jet fuel, for example, has doubled in cost this year due to the war in Iran.
“It’s been pretty obvious that Spirit’s business model was fundamentally flawed and the airline was not going to be able to make it (even before the war-driven fuel spike),” United CEO Scott Kirby said on Wednesday.
Larger airlines with deeper pockets also have their own versions of Spirit’s low-fare model now. United, American and Delta airlines offer “basic economy” no-frills tickets on flights, taking away Spirit’s edge.
Kirby pointed out that United recently reported increased earnings, even with the rise in fuel prices.
“I don’t think this (fuel price) crisis (is) anywhere near big enough to cause the need for (an) airline bailout,” he said.
Spirit previously tried to find a merger partner to stay afloat – first Frontier, which was then outbid by JetBlue in 2022. But JetBlue’s $3.7 billion deal was blocked by a federal court in January 2024 on antitrust grounds.
Spirit announced a deal with creditors in February that would allow it to emerge from its latest bankruptcy with less debt and continue to fly. But three days later, the war in Iran started and fuel prices started surging.
Within two weeks, Spirit was once again warning it could be forced out of business.
Spirit attorney Huebner argued in court Thursday that a federal assistance package would allow the airline to get back on its feet by restructuring debt and selling aircraft and other assets
“Spirit was fixed and ready to emerge,” he said about the airline’s reorganization plans. “It was in great fighting shape before the events of the last few weeks.”
Steven McLean, a Spirit shareholder, disagreed. He challenged Spirit’s reorganization plans during the hearing Thursday and said fuel prices are “only a small part of the picture.”
“There are bigger issues with the progress of this plan than just the fuel prices,” he said.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
