Two decades after Al Gore warned the planet was doomed, the left has stumbled into another inconvenient truth: their own policies are making air travel pricier and harder to find. Next time you hear a progressive politician scream about the cost of flying or try to pin it on Iran, remember who actually lit the fuse.
Worse, these same ideas are the blueprint they want to force onto every corner of the economy — and it would be an absolute disaster for our country.
On May 2, Spirit Airlines flew its last flight. It wasn’t a simple collapse — it was a slow, avoidable execution. Thousands stranded. Up to 15,000 employees suddenly jobless. Smaller airports lost one of their only lifelines. And the Big Four carriers — Delta, American, Southwest, United — tightened their grip on roughly 75% of the entire market.
How did we get here? It’s a story of a bidding war, a merger that could have saved discount flying, and a government that stepped in to kill it.
In 2022, JetBlue and Frontier both tried to buy Spirit, a carrier already gasping for air. Together, those three discount airlines had less than 15% of the market. They wanted to combine into a real rival to the giants. It made sense — for competition, for passengers, for workers.
Then the Biden Justice Department, led by a determined antitrust chief and backed by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, sued to block the deal. Senator Elizabeth Warren piled on, urging regulators to kill the merger. A federal judge sided with the government. JetBlue walked away. And Spirit was left with no escape route.
Jonathan Kanter, the antitrust official, called the blocked merger a "victory for U.S. travelers who deserve lower prices and better choices." Senator Chris Murphy said it would "return power to regular people." Those words aged like milk left in the sun.
Now Spirit is gone, and the people who crushed it are scrambling to point fingers. Warren, who cheered the blocked merger as a "Biden win for flyers," suddenly blames Trump for "the nail in the coffin." She conveniently forgets Spirit filed for bankruptcy a year and a half ago — under Biden.
This isn’t just about airlines. The same playbook hit the grocery industry — a proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger blocked by the same crowd. Two smaller players trying to compete with giants. Government intervenes. Result? Less competition, higher prices, fewer jobs.
And they’re not stopping there. A coalition of leftist ideologues — joined by some misguided Republicans — is targeting Amazon, Apple, and other homegrown success stories with legislation designed to break them up. Biden’s FTC chief even teamed up with European regulators to cripple American companies abroad.
They truly believe they know better than the market. They don’t trust innovation. They don’t trust competition. They trust only their own power.
Had Spirit been allowed to merge with JetBlue, the skies might look very different today. We’ll never know for sure. But we do know this: even if you never set foot on a Spirit plane, you’re paying for its death. With a discount carrier gone, prices across the board are expected to climb.
This midterm election season — and the presidential race after — will be fought over "affordability." Any candidate claiming to have the answer better answer for Spirit. Check the tape. Those who cheered the merger’s death must now explain the devastation they helped create.
