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 wrote in a viral post on X.
“Perhaps it was, but any analysis must consider as part of the equation the loss to so many families to decide.”
Duffy previously pushed back on the notion that surging oil prices from the war in Iran were the impetus for Spirit Airlines falling by the wayside.
“Spirit was in dire straits long before the war with Iran,” the Transportation secretary argued during a press conference on Saturday. “Multiple times, they filed for bankruptcy. Their model wasn’t working.”
“They couldn’t get to fiscal health, so this was not the impetus. The war was not the impetus for Spirit.”
The Post contacted a spokesperson for Duffy’s predecessor, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for comment.
Duffy has long criticized Buttigieg, a speculated 2028 Democratic presidential hopeful, for his performance as Transportation chief.
Last year, for example, he highlighted reporting from The Post that Buttigieg’s Transportation Department doled out more than $80 billion over four years on diversity, equity and inclusion grants.
