A viral grassroots campaign wants everyday travelers, former employees, and Spirit fans to buy Spirit Airlines and relaunch it as a community-owned “Spirit 2.0.” It is certainly a long shot unlikely ever to come to fruition, but I love the sentiment behind it: not every distressed airline has to be carved up by private equity.
The basic idea is simple: instead of allowing private equity or larger airlines to pick over Spirit’s remains, passengers, employees, and communities would band together and try to buy the airline themselves.
The effort was launched by Hunter Peterson, a voice actor and so-called “Spirit superfan” who posted on social media after Spirit ceased operations. He described the idea as starting almost like a joke before quickly taking on a life of its own. Peterson built the website quickly, and the campaign began collecting non-binding pledges rather than actual money.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
