Blame Spirit's downfall on Democrats, not just fuel prices | Opinion

In the wake of crippling jet fuel costs, Spirit Airlines has gone out of business, disrupting passengers’ travel plans, leaving 15,000 employees facing uncertainty and creating a major void in the budget travel market.

Progressive politicians have already rushed to blame President Donald Trump. After all, his war in Iran helped trigger the spike in jet fuel prices that pushed struggling airlines even closer to the brink.

But Spirit’s downfall cannot be blamed on fuel prices alone. Under the Biden administration, Spirit had a merger in place with JetBlue Airways that could have offered the company a financial lifeline. Instead, progressive antitrust ideology blocked the deal in 2024. Rather than allowing Spirit to consolidate into a stronger entity, Democrats left the airline stranded in financial limbo until the latest crisis finished it off.

Spirit Airlines' demise was ensured by Democrats

Spirit’s collapse might not have been entirely preventable, but Democratic lawmakers helped ensure it by blocking the airline’s merger with JetBlue.

The recent spike in jet fuel prices was merely the final, albeit crushing, blow. Spirit had been financially unstable since the COVID-19 pandemic, struggling for years to stay afloat. The company filed for bankruptcy protection, explored multiple survival strategies and ultimately accepted a merger offer from JetBlue that could have provided a path forward.

Instead, the Biden administration sued to block the deal on antitrust grounds. A federal judge agreed, cutting off what was arguably Spirit’s best remaining lifeline.

In hindsight, JetBlue itself may not have ultimately been in the financial position to absorb Spirit’s mounting debts, particularly amid soaring fuel prices. But that was not why congressional Democrats opposed the merger. They blocked it because they feared it might actually work.

“We don't need yet another big merger in the already highly consolidated airline industry,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, argued in 2022. “When airlines get bigger, passengers face higher prices, more delays & fewer choices.”

Warren and her allies urged the Biden administration to block the merger in the name of preserving competition in the airline industry. That argument would carry more weight if it actually fit this situation.

Spirit was precisely the kind of struggling company for which mergers can serve a legitimate economic purpose: preserving valuable assets, routes and market share by folding them into a stronger business capable of sustaining operations. But for progressives like Biden and Warren, ideological opposition to corporate growth often overrides practical economic realities.

Instead, Americans got the worst of both worlds: no merger, no orderly consolidation and ultimately no Spirit Airlines. Consumers now have one fewer budget airline option altogether. Those who warned that the JetBlue merger would reduce competition have little to say now that Spirit’s outright collapse has done exactly that.

Spirit’s planes, airport slots and other assets will likely be absorbed eventually by more profitable competitors. But there is a major difference between structured consolidation and chaotic collapse. In this version, passengers face widespread disruptions, employees face lost jobs and the industry absorbs unnecessary turmoil that a merger may have softened.

Antitrust should protect competition, not simply punish size

Many on the left wrongly treat antitrust law as a tool to stop companies from becoming too large in principle. But antitrust legislation was never intended to punish scale for its own sake. Its purpose is to prevent monopolies and protect genuine competition.

The airline industry, despite consolidation, is far from a monopoly.

Progressives like Warren frequently demonize the "Big Four airlines" ‒ American, Delta, Southwest and United ‒ for controlling roughly 75% of the market. But that statistic alone ignores an important reality: Those four airlines still actively compete against one another, each holding market shares generally ranging from about 15% to 20%.

Spirit and JetBlue, meanwhile, occupied much of the remaining market space. Their merger would have created the nation’s fifth-largest airline, with approximately 10% market share, hardly the profile of a monopolistic giant.

Yet progressive lawmakers opposed the merger not because it threatened to create a monopoly, but because many have adopted a broader ideological hostility toward consolidation itself, regardless of whether that consolidation may actually strengthen competition.

Now Spirit Airlines is out of business, and much of its market share, aircraft and other assets will likely end up in the hands of larger airlines with the capital to absorb them anyway.

The government has a legitimate role in preventing monopolies. But when antitrust policy becomes overly ideological and disconnected from economic reality, it can create serious unintended consequences.

Spirit Airlines’ demise should serve as a warning about the risks of overly aggressive antitrust intervention. But in all likelihood, those responsible will focus solely on Trump’s role in rising fuel costs, with little self-reflection about how their own policies may have contributed.

Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.