Spirit Airlines Shut Down—Then A Fan's 'Packers-Style' Buyout Plan Drew $88 Million In Pledges
Hunter Peterson says the fan-led bid has drawn non-binding pledges from 36,605 people, though no money has been collected.
- Spirit Airlines shut down Saturday, eliminating 17,000 jobs, but voice actor Hunter Peterson launched LetsBuySpirit within hours to purchase the carrier using a fan-ownership model modeled after the Green Bay Packers.
- Operations ceased following a failed $500 million government bailout and mounting losses. Sen. Elizabeth Warren attributed the collapse to skyrocketing fuel costs stemming from the ongoing war with Iran.
- Within hours, 36,000 people registered non-binding pledges totaling nearly $23 million, crashing Peterson's servers. He targets $1.7 billion to acquire the carrier, though no funds have actually been collected.
- Peterson actively recruits aviation lawyers and PR professionals as the project scales. Aviation analyst Gary Leff dismissed the effort as a 'viral organising stunt,' questioning its feasibility.
- Historical attempts at collective airline ownership have struggled; United Airlines' 1995 employee stock plan collapsed by 2003. Experts note acquiring and relaunching an airline typically requires billions, far exceeding current pledges.
31 Articles
31 Articles
An online movement to resurrect Spirit Airlines has amassed millions in pledged funding
Thousands of Americans want to resurrect the now-shuttered Spirit Airlines before its engines have cooled off. But financials and low profit margins in the airline industry will prove difficult, an analyst told Straight Arrow. Speculation about turning Spirit into a public company started hours after the airline went dark. Hunter Peterson, a voice actor, floated the idea as a joke, but changed his tune when he saw the public’s response. He sta…
A viral influencer wants to buy Spirit Airlines and run it like the Green Bay Packers. Could it work?
Since he was 7 years old, voice actor and social media influencer Hunter Peterson has told people that his biggest dream was to start and run an airline. In the wake of Spirit Airlines’ recent shutdown, he believes his golden opportunity has arrived at last—and the internet appears to agree. On May 2, Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc., the company that owns Spirit Airlines, announced what it called “an orderly wind-down of operations,” effective imm…
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