Spirit Airlines wasn’t ‘destined to prosper’: Byron York
Byron York of the *Washington Examiner* said Spirit Airlines was not “destined to prosper” after its long-running financial collapse, arguing the company couldn’t compete and had already been through bankruptcy twice. He criticized attempts to secure a $500 million bailout from the Trump management as an ill-fitting use of government help. After announcing it would shut down, Spirit canceled all flights and told customers customer service would not be available, citing rising oil prices as part of the reason for ending operations.
Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York said that Spirit Airlines wasn’t “destined to prosper,” after the company announced it would shut down following years of struggles.
“Here you just had the market working,” York said on Fox & Friends on Monday. “Spirit was in bankruptcy twice. It had an ever-diminishing share of passengers, and it was just not destined to prosper; that’s just all there is to it.”
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The announcement comes after the airlines failed to secure a $500 million bailout from the Trump administration. Leading up to the decision, the airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy twice, once in November 2024 and again in August 2025.
The airline blamed rising oil prices for the decision to end operations.
York attributed Spirit’s ill fate to the airline’s inability to compete.
“A lot of companies just don’t survive if they cannot compete in the market, and that’s what you had here,” York said.
Moments after the announcement, Spirit canceled all flights and notified customers that customer service would not be available.
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York agreed with other conservatives who didn’t support the Trump administration’s efforts to help Spirit by providing a bailout, saying it “didn’t make much sense” for the federal government to intervene.
“Spirit was dying and had been,” York said. “It was down to almost nothing, so you have to think what is going to be the overall market effect of doing this versus the idea of the government coming to take over or save an airline didn’t seem to make a lot of sense from the administration’s point of view.”
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