{"id":12203,"date":"2026-04-24T05:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/24\/trump-signals-interest-in-buying-spirit-airlines-with-taxpayer-backing-aims-to-resell-for-profit-fox-business\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T05:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:17:14","slug":"trump-signals-interest-in-buying-spirit-airlines-with-taxpayer-backing-aims-to-resell-for-profit-fox-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/24\/trump-signals-interest-in-buying-spirit-airlines-with-taxpayer-backing-aims-to-resell-for-profit-fox-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump signals interest in buying Spirit Airlines with taxpayer backing, aims to resell for profit – Fox Business"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Donald Trump<\/a> has doubled down on the idea of a taxpayer-funded takeover of Spirit Airlines rather than a traditional bailout, an approach critics previously described as highly problematic.<\/p>\n

Trump reaffirmed his interest in offering the airline a financial lifeline during a meeting at the Oval Office on Thursday, adding that the plan would involve reselling the carrier once oil prices decline.<\/p>\n

“We’re thinking about doing it, helping them out and meaning bailing them out or buying it. I think we just buy it,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“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.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

TED CRUZ POURS COLD WATER ON TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PLAN TO BAIL OUT SPIRIT AIRLINES: \u2018TERRIBLE IDEA\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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\"President<\/picture><\/div>\n

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office at the White House on Oct. 6, 2025, in Washington, D.C.<\/span> (Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The remarks came amid talks of a potential financial bailout involving a reported $500 million loan aimed at preserving thousands of American jobs and maintaining a budget-friendly competitor in the airfare industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s in a bankruptcy,” Trump said. “It’s in bankruptcy court<\/a>. And we’re looking if we could get it for the right price, I’d do it to save jobs.”<\/p>\n

Spirit Airlines has faced years of mounting financial challenges that have been pushing the company toward potential liquidation, including multiple Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, failed merger attempts with other low-cost competitors, and rising operation costs driven in part by surging jet fuel prices linked to the conflict involving Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n

BIDEN-SCHUMER-PELOSI WOULD DO MORE DAMAGE IN 2 YEARS THAN OBAMA DID IN 8: TED CRUZ<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Spirit<\/picture><\/div>\n

Spirit Airlines airplanes at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Oct. 24, 2023.<\/span> (Eva Marie Uzcategui\/Bloomberg via Getty Images \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Trump said the strategy would be to put a “smart person” in charge to run the airline properly, wait for oil prices to drop, and then resell the company for a profit once it becomes a valuable asset again.<\/p>\n

“We have somebody that wants to run it, do a good job, smart person, and if they run it properly and if prices come down, all of a sudden it’s a valuable asset,” he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A primary motivation for the potential takeover, Trump said, is to protect the livelihoods of what he estimated to be 18,000 staffers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Ticker<\/th>\nSecurity<\/th>\nLast<\/th>\nChange<\/th>\nChange %<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
FLYYQ<\/a><\/td>\nSPIRIT AVIATION HOLDINGS INC<\/td>\n1.11<\/td>\n-0.39<\/td>\n -26.00% <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

He further emphasized that keeping a large number of airlines in business is important to maintain healthy competition within the industry.<\/p>\n

“<\/strong>I’d love to be able to save an airline<\/a>,” the president added. “You know, I like having a lot of airlines. So it’s competitive.”<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that Spirit Airlines had attempted to merge with another airline years ago before the Obama administration had blocked the move, a decision Trump described as a mistake.<\/p>\n

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\"JetBlue<\/picture><\/div>\n

JetBlue Airways planes sit on the tarmac at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on January 31, 2024 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.\u00a0<\/span> (Photo by Joe Raedle\/Getty Images \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Spirit Airlines previously filed for bankruptcy on two separate occasions, in November 2024 and August 2025, amid mounting losses and unsuccessful merger talks.<\/p>\n

In late February, the airline<\/a> announced that it had reached an agreement with its lenders to exit bankruptcy proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company also introduced a revised business strategy aimed at expanding premium seating options and loyalty programs in an effort to improve financial performance while maintaining its low-cost brand identity.<\/p>\n

FOX Business’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump has doubled down on the idea of a taxpayer-funded takeover of Spirit Airlines rather than a traditional bailout, an approach critics previously described as highly problematic. Trump reaffirmed his interest in offering the airline a financial lifeline during a meeting at the Oval Office on Thursday, adding that the plan would involve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}