President Donald Trump says he is open to federal support for foundering Spirit Airlines.
"I'd love somebody to buy Spirit. It's 14,000 jobs," Trump told CNBC in a Tuesday morning interview. "And maybe the federal government should help that one out, I told my people."
Just before the Iran war began, Spirit, working through its second Chapter 11 restructuring since 2024, had announced plans to emerge from bankruptcy by early summer.
But the subsequent near doubling of fuel costs has likely scotched that plan. Last week, Bloomberg and CNBC, citing anonymous sources, reported that liquidation could be imminent for Spirit. Meanwhile, trade publication The Air Current reported that Spirit has requested hundreds of millions of dollars in federal emergency funding, also citing anonymous sources.
Transportation secretary Sean Duffy is slated to meet Tuesday with executives of Spirit and discount carriers Allegiant, Sun Country, Frontier and Avelo, according to Reuters.
The news service reported that Jonathon Freye, executive of the Association of Value Airlines (AVA), a trade group made up of those five carriers, wrote a letter to Congress asking for temporary suspension of the 7.5% excise tax on airline tickets and the $5.30 segment tax.
Travel Weekly has reached out to AVA and Spirit for comment.
Trump also told CNBC that he is against a merger of United and American. Trump said American is doing fine and that United is doing "very well."
"I don't like having them merge," he said.
Talk of a potential combination of the two airlines was rampant last week after Bloomberg reported that United CEO Scott Kirby had bent Trump's ear about the subject at the end of a February meeting at Washington Dulles Airport.
But American said on April 17 that it's not talking with United and it isn't interested in doing so.