Spirit Airlines went dark over the weekend, with passengers waking up to a blunt alert: every flight canceled, effective immediately.
The shutdown stranded travelers across the country and disrupted service on dozens of routes, including major city pairs such as Dallas-Fort Worth, Newark, Fort Lauderdale, and New Orleans.
Videos flooding social media showed empty check-in counters and deserted gates where budget travelers once packed terminals.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pointed the finger squarely at the Biden administration.
“This is just more of the mess we inherited from the Biden administration,” Bessent said.
“Thanks to @SenWarren, @PeteButtigieg, and all of their friends in the Biden Administration who backed their enthusiastic opposition to the Spirit-Jet Blue merger, dozens of regional airports will now lose service, and thousands of jobs will now be lost.”
The roots of the collapse trace back to a 2024 court decision blocking JetBlue’s bid to acquire Spirit.
At the time, Attorney General Merrick Garland hailed the ruling.
“The Justice Department proved in court that a merger between JetBlue and Spirit would have caused tens of millions of travelers to face higher fares and fewer choices,” Garland said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a leading critic of the deal, also celebrated.
“I’ve warned for months that a JetBlue-Spirit Airlines merger would have led to fewer flights and higher fares,” she said in March 2024. “This is a Biden win for flyers!”
Now, with Spirit collapsing, the political math has flipped.
A last-ditch $500 million rescue effort backed by the Trump administration fell apart after disputes with bondholders, sealing the airline’s fate.
Roughly 15,000 jobs are expected to be lost.
“If JetBlue had merged with Spirit, we would have all these jobs that were lost yesterday; we had 30 regional airports who have lost service,” Bessent said. “The reason we were here was because the Biden Administration opposed the merger. We shouldn’t of been here in the first place.”
Watch the clip below:
Had Spirit Airlines been allowed to merge with Jet Blue, it would have given them much more resiliency.
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Thanks to @SenWarren, @PeteButtigieg, and all of their friends in the Biden Administration who backed their enthusiastic opposition to the Spirit-Jet Blue merger, dozens of… pic.twitter.com/JhtKcAEnFu— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) May 3, 2026
