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After Spirit Airlines Goes Bust, Remember How Biden, Warren Stopped Merger to Save Airline Because It'd Mean 'Fewer Flights'

The demise of Spirit Airlines is that of the demise of countless other carriers since the beginning of airline deregulation in the 1970s, from Braniff International to People Express to ValuJet — initial success and hoopla, overambitious expansion, untenable debt loads from that expansion, and collapse.

Granted, Spirit throws a few wrenches into the usual rags-to-riches-to-rags story.

For one, there’s the fact that much of the damage began with COVID. And then there’s the schadenfreude aspect: The low-cost carrier had developed such a nasty brand reputation, both for its customer service and its customers’ behavior, that rebranding itself as “Yugo” or “Enron Air” might have been an improvement image-wise.

And then there was the last-ditch effort of President Donald Trump’s administration to bail the airline out to the tune of $500 million, with the U.S. government effectively becoming the carrier’s largest shareholder. This was a move straight out of the 2008 housing market collapse, and both Republicans and Democrats — not to mention Spirit’s bondholders, who would likely have gotten shafted had the move gone through — seemed to buck against it.

In the end, it wasn’t enough. According to The Wall Street Journal, Spirit was preparing to shut down effective 3 a.m. Eastern on Saturday morning. CNN confirmed this shortly after 1 a.m. Eastern, citing two sources familiar with the airline’s shutdown plans.

Shortly after 2:30 a.m. Eastern, the airline made it official: “It is with great disappointment........

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