DOT Secretary Duffy blames Biden admin, Pete Buttigieg for Spirit Airlines failure

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy slammed his predecessor for sowing the seeds of Spirit Airlines’ dramatic collapse when the Biden administration killed a $3.8 billion merger deal with JetBlue.“Spirit tried to merge with JetBlue.The Joe Biden-Pete Buttigieg administration and DOJ tanked that deal,” Duffy told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

“Immediately after that, they filed for bankruptcy.”“This was in the works for some time.I’m proud of the American airlines that have stepped up to take care of the passengers of Spirit, making sure they get home.”The ultra-low-cost airline crashed and burned early Saturday, costing some 17,000 jobs.

President Trump had contemplated a $500 million bailout for Spirit Airlines, but ultimately that deal fell apart.Back in 2024, a court sided with the Biden administration’s Justice Department in opposing a merger deal between Spirit Airlines and JetBlue.Spirit Airlines had been circling the drain financially for years and later filed for bankruptcy in 2024 after the merger deal was shut down.The DOTe boss was far from the only Trump administration official blaming the last administration for Spirit Airlines’ demise.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent similarly faulted the Biden-era DOJ for killing the merger. “This is just more of the mess we inherited from the Biden administration,” Bessent told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “The reason we were here was because the Biden administration opposed the merger.

We shouldn’t have been here in the first place.”At least one alumna of the Biden administration, such as the former president’s adviser Neera Tanden, publicly questioned whether opposition to the merger was the right move in hindsight. “Given the news today that Spirit Airlines is shuttering and thousands of people are losing their jobs, I think we should honestly assess whether the Garland DoJ stopping the JetBlue merger with Spirit Airlines was the right call,” Tanden wrot...