Sununu to Newsmax: Passing on Spirit Bailout the Right Call

The Trump administration made the right decision in declining a proposed bailout of Spirit Airlines, as the carrier's financial condition was beyond saving without major taxpayer risk, former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said Sunday on Newsmax.

"Look, this was a financial disaster," Sununu, who is now the president and CEO of Airlines for America, told Newsmax's "Sunday Report." "It had massive amounts of debt. It had virtually no assets under it. It had gone from 220 flights down to 80, something like that."

He added that while President Donald Trump's effort to explore options was appreciated, a bailout would have amounted to a poor investment.

"The fact that the president was even trying, God bless him, I think everyone really appreciates that," Sununu said. "He wanted to make sure the employees and the customers were taken care of, but there was no way to do this without the taxpayer just effectively investing in a pile of garbage."

He pointed to recent efforts by other airlines to absorb stranded passengers and assist displaced workers.

"I think that's the most important part of the last 24 hours," Sununu said. "While Spirit has not handled this well at all, everyone else is stepping up. United Airlines has moved over 30,000 people, Southwest has taken over 20,000, JetBlue is doing their part."

Sununu added that airlines are also helping Spirit employees find new jobs.

"They have their own website set up to say, hey, if you're a Spirit flight attendant or pilot or you worked at the gate or whatever it was, you get preferential treatment to get a job here at another airline," he said. "They're trying to make sure that the employees are taken care of as well as possible, because Spirit just did not handle it well."

He said the company's collapse reflects its specific business failures, not necessarily the broader low-cost airline model.

"It doesn't mean the low-cost model doesn't work. It means their low-cost model didn't work," Sununu said.

Sununu also criticized the Biden administration's decision in 2024 to block a proposed merger between Spirit and JetBlue, saying it contributed to the airline's downfall.

"Leave it to the government to make things worse pretty much every time," Sununu said. "They stepped in, and even I don't know how former Secretary [Pete] Buttigieg defends any of that, because he even says we typically don't get involved, but we're going to get involved."

He said the blocked deal, reportedly valued at billions, could have changed the airline's trajectory.

"They were offered close to $4 billion by JetBlue," Sununu said. "Think about where we would be now if that had just gone through. Instead, they slow-rolled it. It was a death spiral."

Sununu said the airline filed for bankruptcy shortly after the deal was blocked and ultimately moved toward liquidation.

"This is exactly why we're here today," he said. "When you're looking at businesses, it's not about bailouts. It's about understanding financial models, what is best for the customer, how does the business actually work, not just sitting in a room and saying what's best for us politically in the moment."

He added that the government's intervention left travelers in a difficult position.

"Now you have all these customers that feel completely stranded and left out because two years ago the government decided to put its nose where it didn't belong into private business," Sununu said.

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