The inconvenient truth behind the left’s horrible Spirit Airlines debacle
Two decades after former Vice President Al Gore predicted the end of the earth, the left is stuck with another inconvenient truth: their policy prescriptions are making air travel more expensive and less accessible this summer travel season.
Remember this the next time you hear another left-wing politician fulminate about the high costs of travel or try to blame it on the conflict in Iran. Worse, these are the same prescriptions the left wants to bring to every facet of the American economy, and they would be ruinous for our country.
When Spirit Airlines’ last flight touched down May 2, it was a sad and avoidable outcome that was years in the making. Travelers stranded. As many as 15,000 employees out of work. Smaller market airports suddenly bereft of one of their only travel options. And, more power consolidated among the country’s "big four" — Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines — that control roughly 75% of the nation’s air travel market share.
How did we get here?
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In 2022, JetBlue and Frontier Airlines entered a bidding war for Spirit, which had long been struggling financially. Combined, the three discount airlines controlled less than 15% of the total air travel market.
Eventually, JetBlue and Spirit announced their merger agreement to create a "low-fare challenger" to the Big Four before the Biden Department of Justice, led by Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division Jonathan Kanter and supported by then-Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, sued to block the merger. Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a known critic of successful companies, had piled on and urged the DOT to block the merger in a 2023 letter.
A federal judge sided with President Joe Biden and Kanter, and the merger was scuttled. Left with no path to completing the transaction, JetBlue abandoned the acquisition of Spirit. Kanter, in a statement that aged poorly, called the failed merger a "victory for U.S. travelers who deserve lower prices and better choices." Connecticut Democrat Senator Chris Murphy said it would "return power to regular people."
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Now Spirit is gone, and those responsible are rushing to shift the blame.
Two years after calling the blocked merger "a Biden win for flyers," Warren is blaming Trump for "the nail in the coffin," ignoring the fact that Spirit filed for bankruptcy a year and a half ago.
It’s not just airlines, either. Many of these same people have also blocked a proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons. The parallels are similar. Two smaller entities trying to compete with the larger companies. The left intervenes, and the result is less competition, higher prices and fewer jobs.
An effort is also afoot by many of these same politicians to take down other thriving home-grown success stories. A group of leftist ideologues, unfortunately with the support of some misguided Republicans, have targeted companies like Amazon and Apple with legislation that would break them up.
Biden’s Federal Trade Commission, led by Lina Khan, now an adviser to socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, even worked with European Union regulators to impose crippling restrictions on American companies that operate overseas.
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For the socialists calling the shots in today’s Democratic Party, success is a sin, and the only solution is government intervention. They believe that they know best, and do not believe private sector innovation and market forces can lead to advantageous outcomes.
Had Spirit been allowed to merge with JetBlue, things could look a lot different today. We’ll sadly never know.
What is clear is that even if you never booked a ticket on Spirit, you’ll be paying the price now, literally. Removing a discount carrier from the skies is expected to increase prices across the board.
This midterm election season and the presidential election that follows are poised to center around the concept of "affordability." For any candidate who claims to have the keys to lower prices, check the tape on what they were saying about Spirit. Those who opposed the merger should answer for the devastation they have wrought.