Don’t put taxpayers on the hook for subsidizing low-budget airlines

The downfall of Spirit Airlines has mushroomed from a routine business failure into a far messier test case against government intervention in the free market.

The unfortunate series of Spirit’s government-facilitated events began three years ago, when the Biden administration blocked Spirit’s merger with JetBlue on the grounds that absorbing a low-cost carrier would reduce fare competition and raise prices. That decision removed what was, at the time, the company’s most viable path to stability.

Left to navigate a difficult operating environment on its own, Spirit instead drifted toward insolvency. Bankruptcy followed, and as of two weeks ago, the company was in discussions with creditors over the possibility of liquidation.

SMASHING PUMPKINS FRONTMAN BILLY CORGAN JUST OFFERED A GREAT LESSON IN ECONOMICS

That should have been the end of it. Instead of taking the outcome as a signal that intervention had already gone too far, the Trump administration is now considering a