Posted on 04/25/2026 5:15:05 AM PDT by DFG
The White House is reportedly considering a plan to take over Spirit Airlines and use part of the bankrupt carrier’s fleet for military missions.
Under the proposal, President Trump would invoke the Defense Production Act to loan Spirit Airlines money for national defense purposes, CBS News reported on Friday.
The Pentagon would then use the budget airline’s “excess capacity for transporting troops, military cargo or other missions,” the outlet said, citing sources.
Spirit’s creditors would need to sign off on the strategy.
The company, known for its bright-yellow planes and low-cost fares, has declared bankruptcy twice in the past two years.
Spirit’s financial turnaround plan has been facing uncertainty amid the rising cost of jet fuel prices due to the war in Iran.
The carrier projected fuel costs averaging about $2.24 per gallon in 2026 and $2.14 in 2027, as part of its plan to stay afloat, according to Reuters.
However, jet fuel prices are currently averaging $4.30 a gallon.
An attorney for Spirit Airlines warned during a bankruptcy hearing Thursday that the carrier may only have days left to operate, according to CBS News.
The company reportedly recently missed an interest payment, putting it in danger of a creditor initiating a default action against Spirit which could prompt the carrier to liquidate its assets.
Trump has recently expressed interest in bailing out Spirit.
“We’re thinking about doing it, helping them out and meaning bailing them out or buying it. I think we just buy it,” he told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday.
“We’d be getting it virtually debt free. They have some good aircraft, some good assets, and when the price of oil goes down, we’ll sell it for a profit,” the president added.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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Use them for DEPORTATIONS AND MILITARY!!
Neat.
Yes, deportations. And the ones that a judge says have to stay in the country? Fly them to Gitmo, but leave the gate open so they can walk into Cuba anytime they want. I wonder if the Cubans would welcome them with debit cards and Cuban Obama phones.
They might want to perform aircraft inspections first. How many maintenance shortcuts and pencil whippings have been done by that poorly operated and broke airline?
I think you are onto something there
The Border Patrol is now free to deport tens of thousands of the illegal aliens populating the sanctuary City States
Great idea. I think they should be used primarily for deporting.
👍👍👍
Deportations.....”Or other missions” covers it...
There were supposed to be taken over by JetBlue.
For reasons, I cannot understand, the government (These unknown people who ruled the country while Biden was asleep at the wheel.) blocked that merger?!
Now the government has to spend money, to work this situation out.
The futures markets aren’t for speculating. they are for carriers to protect their profits. And if what you produce costs more than you are paying to make it, you cannot make the difference up in volume.
Stop with the warring and there’s no need for the military.
And Trump unfortunately pulled the rug out of from under us with his deportation promises.
I’m sure this government intervention is being done with the purest of intentions. After all, what could possibly go wrong when the state starts “saving” companies? If history is any guide, we can trust the Democrats to take this benevolent precedent and—shockingly—manage it right into a total corruption of the free market. It’s a classic bait-and-switch: save an airline today, own the means of production tomorrow.
buy AS MUCH $FLYYQ as you can right now, look what happen to government cpu company $INTC, went from $20 at purchase to $80 today
Winner
Spirit does not own wide bodies. Their A320’s aren’t going trans Atlantic without refueling somewhere like Iceland.
Years back I shuttled non ETOPS aircraft through Iceland, the old B17 route to Europe.All the civil aircraft DOD uses for troop transport ( contracts) are wide bodies, or ETOPS certified.
Is lack of federally owned aircraft our most severe deportation bottleneck?
There goes my YouTube content.
Yes, deportations
“I like thinking big. I always have. To me it’s very simple: If you’re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.”—Donald J. Trump
The Pentagon would then use the budget airline’s “excess capacity for transporting troops, military cargo or other missions,”
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