SCOTT KIRBY

So long, Spirit Airlines. Should the government have saved you?

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Spirit Airlines has begun an orderly wind-down of operations, effective immediately. Every flight has been canceled and customer service is closed. The shutdown comes after the Trump administration’s $500 million rescue plan, which would have given the federal government an unprecedented 90 percent stake in the carrier, fell apart over the weekend. After blocking Spirit’s merger with JetBlue on antitrust grounds in 2024, the federal government spent the past several days weighing whether to essentially own the airline instead. In the end, it did neither, leaving summer ticket holders to fight their credit card companies for refunds.

Editorial cartoon illustration of shocked and panicked travelers running away from an enormous airplane featuring both American Airlines red-white-blue livery and United Airlines globe logo, symbolizing consumer anxiety about the proposed United-American Airlines merger that would control 40% of the U.S. market

Should we allow United and American to merge?

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The United Airlines–American Airlines merger everyone feared may actually be happening.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby reportedly met with administration officials at the White House in February to float an audacious proposal: a combination with American Airlines.