No. of Recommendations: 14
After 30+ years, they’re finally gone. Heckuva job, Senator Warren.
The demise of Spirit Airlines is a nothingburger. There are other airlines to buy the planes, hire the crews, make more seats available if that is what the public wants. The end of Spirit airlines does not mean the end of the airline industry, and government resources should not be spent to prevent a company which is essentially economically meaningless to continue (especially when it has been bankrupt twice in recent years.)
This is to differentiate it from the bailout of the banks and the auto industry, both of which were in danger of total collapse, and both of which would presage a deep and harmful depression in the American economy for years, possibly decades to come.
I don’t know if the merger between JetBlue and Spirit would have been a bad thing or not, it’s telling that the DoJ ruled that it would, that the courts ruled that it would, and that there was little support for it politically from either party at the time. It’s too bad that people will lose their jobs, but jobs will return in other forms, as they do if the market decides, or not if it doesn’t. Meanwhile we have unemployment insurance to cushion the blow, one part of the social safety net we offer in an advance society.
Meanwhile, it makes good fodder for comedians one last time:
Just a few hours ago, Spirit Airlines permanently shutdown midflight. The airline stranded thousands of passengers at airports with no employees manning any of the check-in desks. Spirit said they were proud they were still maintaining their normal level of service.
