President Donald Trump on Friday reiterated his hope that the federal government could make a deal with Spirit Airlines to keep the struggling airline afloat, after The Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported earlier in the day that Spirit is preparing to cease operations soon.
The budget airline had been in talks with the Trump administration about a $500 million infusion that could’ve resulted in the government owning most of the company. But barring a last-minute agreement with the government and bondholders, the Journal reported, Spirit has begun moving forward with plans to shut down its operations as early as 3 a.m. Saturday.
Trump told reporters on Friday before departing the White House for Florida that his administration had given the airline a final proposal.
“If we can do it, we’ll do it, but only if it’s a good deal,” he said.
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He continued: “I said I’d like to save the jobs, but we’ll have an announcement sometime today. We gave them a final proposal.”
Spirit, the White House and the Transportation Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Jet fuel price spikes stemming from the Iran war dealt a blow to the company’s plans to climb out of bankruptcy, the Journal and Times reported.
The government’s possible bailout of Spirit sparked bipartisan pushback from Trump allies Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
“The government doesn’t know a damn thing about running a failed budget airline,” Cruz said on X last week.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also appeared critical of the move in an interview with Reuters last week, raising concerns about having to do the same for other companies in the future.
“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,” Duffy said.
The airline announced in March that it planned to downsize its fleet to roughly 80 planes. It also planned to focus on its hot spots in Florida, New York and Detroit and reduce flights outside peak days. But the company appears to be running out of runway to change its fate.“The cash actually available to Spirit to fund ongoing operations is not going to last for very much longer,” said Marshall Huebner, a Spirit attorney, said at a bankruptcy hearing on April 23, adding that the airline was likely to run out of funds by the end of the following week.
This story has been updated to note that Spirit may shut down as early as 3 a.m. Saturday.
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