The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1773 - Idiot Politicians Killed Spirit Airlines. Here’s Why That’s Bad News For You.
Aired: 2026-05-04
Duration: 49:23


=== Spirit's Historic Shutdown (05:57) ===

[00:00:00]  There are many ways to eulogize Spirit Airlines, the budget airline that just shut down operations for good.
[00:00:06]  The easiest way and the most entertaining would be to simply play some of their most ghetto moments.
[00:00:11]  And as we all know, there are many, many such moments.
[00:00:15]  Unless you're a world star power user, there's simply no way you've seen all of them.
[00:00:20]  And critics might say that this would be a really cheap and insensitive way to memorialize an airline that's existed in one form or another for more than 40 years and which employed nearly 20,000 people.
[00:00:31]  And while those critics would be Absolutely right in saying that.
[00:00:35]  We're still going to do it anyway in just a second.
[00:00:37]  But we're also going to talk about how exactly Spirit collapsed and how this could be a moment to finally improve the abysmal quality of air travel in this country, which, as we've discussed many times, has been in a state of constant decline for a long time now.
[00:00:53]  Now, a lot of people are saying that Spirit's passengers are going to break containment and degrade the quality of air travel for everybody else because they can't go to Spirit.
[00:01:01]  Now they're going to go on all the other airlines and we'll have to deal with them.
[00:01:05]  But there's no reason that.
[00:01:07]  That needs to happen.
[00:01:08]  And at the moment, we're in a unique position to prevent it from happening, or at least to prevent the degradation of air travel in general.
[00:01:16]  That doesn't need to occur.
[00:01:19]  This is, after all, a historic moment.
[00:01:20]  It's the first time that a major U.S. airline has shut down completely in more than two decades without any kind of merger.
[00:01:28]  In the middle of the night, all of their operations stopped immediately.
[00:01:31]  And as the last Spirit planes landed, their pilots and other pilots and air traffic controllers Started to get emotional, understandably, on the radio.
[00:01:41]  Watch.
[00:01:43]  Is there any other spare flights coming in, that's right?
[00:01:46]  Let me see.
[00:01:49]  I don't see anything.
[00:01:51]  I don't think you guys flew non-stop from Intercontinental.
[00:01:59]  That's like the last thing I'm kind of seeing on here.
[00:02:03]  So you might be the last one.
[00:02:07]  Well, it was a pleasure working with you guys and I wish you the best.
[00:02:14]  Thank you very much.
[00:02:16]  Thank you, thank you.
[00:02:21]  Hey Spirit, all the best and whatever comes next for you guys.
[00:02:31]  I really appreciate it, man.
[00:02:32]  Thanks.
[00:02:35]  And Spirit Rings 1, just want to say thoughts to all you and your colleagues over there at the Bananas the next couple days in full.
[00:02:43]  Hey, man, we really appreciate that.
[00:02:44]  Thank you.
[00:02:45]  It's hard to believe this is it.
[00:02:48]  Yeah, no, Kevin.
[00:02:48]  It's always a pleasure to talk with you guys on the radios.
[00:02:51]  Hope you guys make it out okay.
[00:02:57]  Now, Spirit began as Charter One Airlines in 1983, where they mainly ferried gamblers to Atlantic City and Vegas before officially becoming Spirit Airlines in 1992.
[00:03:09]  And more recently, around 2014, they decided to adopt the bright yellow look of a New York City taxi because.
[00:03:15]  When you think of safety and comfort and pilots who speak English, you definitely think of a New York City taxi.
[00:03:23]  The CreditWord Stu was a rare example of truth in advertising.
[00:03:26]  Spirit never pretended to be anything that it wasn't.
[00:03:29]  They also somehow never killed a single passenger in their entire history of operations, which is genuinely impressive, especially considering the track record of most budget carriers.
[00:03:39]  Theirs was significantly better.
[00:03:41]  Frankly, it's impressive considering the track record of most major airlines, too.
[00:03:45]  I mean, just yesterday, a United Airlines plane.
[00:03:47]  If you didn't see this, coming in for landing at Newark, was flying so low that it hit a light pole and a tractor trailer.
[00:03:54]  So we'll play two clips here the actual impact, and then a video of a normal approach to the same airport.
[00:04:00]  You can see how close the planes get to the turnpike.
[00:04:05]  watch.
[00:04:26]  Now, nobody was seriously injured somehow, which is really hard to believe.
[00:04:32]  But apparently, the truck got hit by a plane and the guy was hardly injured.
[00:04:37]  Per Fox, quote, a preliminary investigation found the plane's landing gear and underside struck a pole and a tractor trailer sending the pole into a Jeep traveling on the roadway.
[00:04:48]  Now, in this screenshot, you can see the landing gear right behind the driver a half second before impact.
[00:04:55]  But in any event, as you may have noticed, These kinds of accidents are becoming more and more common.
[00:04:59]  Spirit, however, avoided all of that.
[00:05:01]  They didn't have any fatal collisions of any kind.
[00:05:05]  And obviously, that's a major point in their favor.
[00:05:08]  Another point in their favor, if we're being honest, could be found in the insane fees that Spirit charges on everything or charged, including printing a boarding pass.
[00:05:16]  I mean, the truth is that Spirit charged so many little fees that actually they managed to improve some aspects of flying, specifically the boarding process.
[00:05:25]  Now, ask yourself this question What's the single biggest factor that slows down boarding?
[00:05:31]  Why does it take 30 minutes from the start of boarding for the plane to leave the gate?
[00:05:35]  And the answer is carry on luggage.
[00:05:37]  Everybody stands in the aisle and spends a painfully long period of time trying to jam their suitcase into the overhead bin or trying to locate a free space or whatever it is they're doing.
[00:05:48]  There are studies and simulations showing that if carry ons were abolished, planes would board up to 40% faster.
[00:05:54]  And most of these people are trying to avoid the check bag fee.

=== Fees Speed Up Boarding (15:25) ===

[00:05:58]  Well, how did Spirit solve that problem?
[00:06:01]  In a very innovative way.
[00:06:02]  Well, they charged for carry on bags too.
[00:06:04]  In fact, they typically charge more for carry ons than for check bags, which kind of makes sense, actually.
[00:06:11]  So there's no longer an incentive for passengers to waste everybody's time in the aisles.
[00:06:16]  And that could be why last year, Spirit's on time performance was actually one of the best in the country behind only Delta and Alaska Airlines.
[00:06:25]  But no one ever talks about Spirit's on time performance.
[00:06:28]  Instead, they talk about videos like this one.
[00:06:32]  Don't play with me.
[00:06:35]  Do not play with me.
[00:06:37]  Do not play with me because I'm not the one or the two.
[00:06:42]  You're not the one or the two.
[00:06:44]  Let's go.
[00:06:45]  You ain't got shit.
[00:06:46]  You ain't going to do that shit.
[00:06:47]  Like I said, keep my fing name out your mouth.
[00:06:51]  I'm not even fing No, some reason.
[00:07:01]  Get all the fing fing fing fing out of here.
[00:07:05]  F fing Out of here, you dirty.
[00:07:08]  Yes, you are out of here.
[00:07:11]  You and your raggedy ass out of here.
[00:07:15]  Go suck it.
[00:07:18]  Like I said, I said what I said, and I said what I said.
[00:07:22]  Please step to me like you want it.
[00:07:27]  Go suck another dirty.
[00:07:35]  She said, I'm not the one or the two.
[00:07:37]  Because I guess usually it's I'm not the one, but she's not the one or the two.
[00:07:41]  But is she the three?
[00:07:42]  Is the question.
[00:07:44]  Once we get through one and two, that leaves you.
[00:07:47]  Now you're number three.
[00:07:48]  I don't know.
[00:07:49]  Now, as a traveler who's paid money for a ticket, you can certainly make the case that you should never have to witness unprofessional behavior like this, even though it makes for very compelling online content.
[00:08:02]  You might point out that the local dog pound treats its animals with more civility and respect.
[00:08:08]  But if that's your attitude, you really need to.
[00:08:11]  Consider the state of the competition.
[00:08:12]  I mean, for all their faults, those spirit ticketing agents were only attacking each other.
[00:08:16]  I mean, they weren't threatening to fight the customers in that video, anyway, or making fun of them or telling them to put dirty things in their mouths or any of that.
[00:08:26]  And in that respect, these women at Spirit Airlines are an order of magnitude better than what you get at, say, Frontier Airlines.
[00:08:33]  Watch.
[00:08:35]  I paid for a ticket.
[00:08:38]  Yeah, I paid for a ticket.
[00:08:42]  I just said that I would pay the $25.
[00:08:45]  And you thought you were going to get on your flight.
[00:08:56]  I literally paid for a ticket.
[00:08:57]  I'm here 30 minutes.
[00:08:59]  I'm here 30 minutes before my flight.
[00:09:01]  And they're not letting me check in.
[00:09:03]  And you're not getting on your flight.
[00:09:05]  That's a policy.
[00:09:05]  We don't control that.
[00:09:10]  I mean, hopefully they have enough cameras there.
[00:09:12]  So they got, they got, this is an interaction with three people, and all three of them are filming it.
[00:09:17]  So hopefully we have all the angles.
[00:09:20]  We have all the angles covered.
[00:09:23]  You know, you need good coverage when you're filming something.
[00:09:26]  So that's good.
[00:09:27]  Now, one thing that bears mentioning here is that when people talk about Spirit Airlines, they act like it's the only budget carrier in the world and they just ignore the existence of Frontier, Allegiant, Breeze Airways, and others.
[00:09:40]  And that's going to be important later when we get into the antitrust lawsuit that the Biden administration filed in order to block Spirit's merger with JetBlue.
[00:09:47]  In reality, there are several other budget airlines.
[00:09:50]  And yes, they might sass you a little bit more than even Spirit does.
[00:09:56]  It might even make fun of you while they prevent you from boarding the flight you paid for.
[00:10:00]  But if you're looking to save some money in exchange for a ticket that may or may not be worthless, the option is certainly there.
[00:10:07]  Also, even the big four carriers have a lot of issues on the customer service front, to put it mildly.
[00:10:13]  They might not fight with their passengers or each other, but sometimes they simply abandon gates entirely, forcing passengers to take matters into their own hands.
[00:10:22]  This is a video that went viral just last night.
[00:10:24]  Watch.
[00:10:26]  Hi, Delta associates that aren't paying attention.
[00:10:30]  Please come to 30B.
[00:10:34]  You have a customer waiting.
[00:10:37]  Thank you.
[00:10:39]  Delta, Delta, please come to 30B.
[00:10:44]  You have a customer waiting.
[00:10:48]  Delta, Delta, is anybody working?
[00:10:52]  Okay, that's fine if you want to do the baggage thing, but what about customer service?
[00:11:00]  Customer service is needed at 30B.
[00:11:03]  Please come and help the customer at 30B.
[00:11:09]  Anyone on shift?
[00:11:14]  Delta, Delta, please help.
[00:11:20]  I mean, if you're going to be in a situation where they can't find anyone to go work the gate, then at least it's better to not be on the plane yet when that happens.
[00:11:28]  I think I told the story.
[00:11:30]  Recently, of having this happen on the opposite end when we landed, we were at the gate and we had to wait in the plane at the gate for an hour for a gate agent to show up to open the door for us.
[00:11:46]  So, and you know, we can beat up on Spirit, but when we do that, there's a real risk of ignoring clips like this, and we should be aware of that.
[00:11:55]  Of course, the real knock against Spirit Airlines isn't that their ticket agents are abusive towards customers or abandon their posts or whatever.
[00:12:01]  The real issue is.
[00:12:03]  Has always been with Spirit's passengers, who developed the single worst reputation of any customer base, of any company, at any point in American history.
[00:12:12]  Spirit Airlines has all the violence of Waffle House, except you can't walk out the door and go home anytime you want.
[00:12:18]  And even worse, they don't serve waffles.
[00:12:20]  And that leads to scenes like this one from an airport in Florida.
[00:12:26]  It's a passenger revolt as total chaos erupts at the airport.
[00:12:34]  Police were called in to sort out turbulent scenes involving furious passengers at the Spirit Airlines terminal in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
[00:12:43]  Here's that.
[00:12:44]  Ugly moment from another angle.
[00:12:49]  This passenger was taken away in handcuffs as things around him got heated.
[00:12:55]  This woman was hustled away by officers.
[00:12:57]  Another passenger was pinned to the ground by three cops.
[00:13:01]  The trouble exploded after Spirit canceled nine flights, including one to LaGuardia.
[00:13:07]  Somebody was like slamming a hand down on a counter and the police came.
[00:13:10]  Very angry, angry, angry people.
[00:13:13]  Everybody had places to be and couldn't be there.
[00:13:16]  Check out this crazy scene.
[00:13:17]  After order was restored, deputies line up behind the check-in counters just in case.
[00:13:26]  Those spirit passengers, they're very spirited, maybe.
[00:13:32]  Now, to defend the passengers a little bit, not really defend them, but to put it into context, the canceled flights were the result of the pilots and their union.
[00:13:42]  They walked off the job due to a pay dispute of some kind.
[00:13:45]  And indeed, if you get on the rabbit hole of violent Spirit Airlines videos, you'll find that many of the incidents began.
[00:13:51]  When Spirit employees did something that's objectively bad or caused a problem.
[00:13:57]  And then the passengers, many of whom lack any form of impulse control, go to war with each other.
[00:14:03]  Now, for example, earlier I mentioned that Spirit charged more money for carry on bags, which had the side effect of speeding up their boarding process.
[00:14:11]  But as you might imagine, that policy had another side effect.
[00:14:13]  It caused a lot of people to get punched in the head and dragged around the floor of the terminal.
[00:14:19]  Watch.
[00:14:21]  The two people arrested are.
[00:14:22]  From Detroit.
[00:14:23]  They came here to Metro Sunday on their way to Atlanta and ended up just going to jail.
[00:14:38]  It was a dispute over the size of a carry on bag, and tempers quickly erupted.
[00:14:55]  Sunday at Metro.
[00:14:56]  Gate D15, Spirit employees were trying to board the flight to Atlanta.
[00:15:02]  In this new video, you can see a passenger clearly punch an employee in the face, but the employee does not retaliate as he declares a security breach and tries to close the doors.
[00:15:19]  That's when it turns into a melee, including a woman clearly throwing punches while holding a baby.
[00:15:30]  Jamil Murphy and Ray Monique Williams, both of Detroit, pleaded not guilty today to aggravated assault, assault and battery, and disturbing the peace.
[00:15:43]  And again, one employee ended up going to the hospital.
[00:15:46]  The other is suffering some after effects, needing medical attention today.
[00:15:54]  Ray Monique Williams.
[00:15:56]  That's a spirit passenger name, all right.
[00:15:59]  That's like, you know, we could.
[00:16:00]  Play a game and I'll tell you the name of a passenger and you tell me what airline you think they're flying.
[00:16:05]  Ray Monique Williams, what do you think?
[00:16:10]  This is the trade off with any kind of novel carry on policy.
[00:16:13]  On the one hand, passengers will board the plane faster.
[00:16:16]  On the other hand, they might try to kill each other and the gate agents.
[00:16:21]  It's impossible to know if the trade off is worth it.
[00:16:23]  But then also, if they do kill each other, then there's fewer people to board the plane.
[00:16:26]  So that might actually speed up the process a little bit.
[00:16:30]  And, you know, on the other things too, when chaos breaks out, passengers on spirit planes are sometimes very capable of defending themselves.
[00:16:37]  This is from an article in an NBC affiliate back in 2021.
[00:16:40]  Quote, A woman flying from Fort Lauderdale to Nashville allegedly attacked two flight attendants and was zip tied by another passenger Saturday.
[00:16:48]  It happened on Spirit Airlines flight NK222.
[00:16:53]  Airport police were called to a gate at Nashville International Airport around 7 p.m.
[00:16:56]  The crew told officers that the woman, 42, had pulled the hair of one flight attendant and punched another.
[00:17:02]  At some point, another passenger tried to tie the woman's feet with zip ties.
[00:17:08]  Now, they don't specify where exactly the passenger acquired these zip ties.
[00:17:12]  It's quite possible the flight attendant. Tossed them over and deputized the passenger during the emergency.
[00:17:19]  It's also possible the passenger had the zip ties in his carry on bag, which he paid extra for because he's a veteran of many previous Spirit Airlines flights.
[00:17:30]  It's one of those things that regular Spirit passengers like to have available at all times, just in case something like this happens.
[00:17:39]  Cell phone video shows chaos in a Spirit Airlines cabin.
[00:17:43]  A brawl breaks out between a group of women on a plane.
[00:17:46]  There's hair pulling, pushing, and it even looks like Someone throws a punch.
[00:17:50]  Other passengers and a flight attendant can be seen trying to break this thing up.
[00:17:56]  Witnesses say it started after Spirit Flight 141 landed.
[00:18:00]  Apparently, a few passengers were playing their music very loudly.
[00:18:04]  Passengers close to them got angry.
[00:18:06]  Words were exchanged and then this erupted.
[00:18:08]  Other passengers who saw this video say it looked beyond frightening.
[00:18:13]  I'd be like really afraid just because of all the security and all the issues with that going on right now.
[00:18:18]  I mean, I would think that was bigger than just two girls fighting with music.
[00:18:22]  The plane is probably the last place you'd want to do something like that.
[00:18:25]  Witnesses say the fight didn't last long.
[00:18:27]  Once it was announced, police were called.
[00:18:32]  Now, this may look like a generic collection of Spirit Airlines videos that I'm putting together here, but there's some artistry behind it, if I do say so myself.
[00:18:40]  I'm trying to find one example of every common motive for a brawl on one of these planes.
[00:18:47]  First, we had flight cancellations, then we had the carry on bag policy.
[00:18:51]  And now we have one of the most common justifications of all, which is loud music.
[00:18:56]  You'll find this motivation come up again and again if you ask any expert who specializes in conflicts aboard Spirit Airlines jets.
[00:19:04]  Of course, domestic violence is another common motivation, so we will end on that.
[00:19:08]  Watch.
[00:19:10]  I'm trying to get your pay.
[00:19:12]  I'll break your mother's neck in here.
[00:19:14]  A fisticuffs between a pair of Spirit Airlines passengers making waves on social media.
[00:19:19]  The dust up went down at Hartsfield Jackson Airport in Atlanta.
[00:19:23]  The women's destination, Detroit.
[00:19:26]  That's crazy.
[00:19:28]  I think it's sad, but I think people are just angry, period.
[00:19:37]  This is not the first time Spirit Airlines passengers put their fighting spirit on display.
[00:19:44]  There was an in flight fracas last week between two travelers headed to Atlanta from Las Vegas.
[00:19:52]  Earlier this year, two Spirit Airlines passengers came to blows after landing at Detroit Metro Airport.
[00:19:58]  Yeah, guys, this turned violent.
[00:19:59]  Quickly, last night here at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport.
[00:20:04]  Take a look at this video we got from a man who was there.
[00:20:14]  So it's unclear exactly what sparked the outburst, but it appears to be at the Spirit Gate for a flight to Philadelphia last night.
[00:20:20]  You can see several women throwing things at Spirit Airlines employees and then eventually going back to the counter and physically attacking at least one of those employees.
[00:20:30]  Again, no word on what sparked this, but we do know three women were arrested in relation to this.
[00:20:35]  20 year old Timea Wright was charged with touch or strike battery and petty theft.
[00:20:39]  22 year old Daenacia Dixon is charged with touch or strike battery.
[00:20:43]  And 21 year old Kira Ferguson is also charged with touch or strike battery.
[00:20:49]  Quick, Denacia Dixon.
[00:20:51]  What airline is she flying?
[00:20:54]  Delta First Class.
[00:20:56]  Probably not.
[00:20:57]  That would be a twist ending.
[00:20:58]  Now, as you could tell from watching these videos, Spirit was operating on extremely low margins.
[00:21:03]  The whole reason for their existence was offering the cheapest flights possible.
[00:21:07]  And as long as you didn't check a bag or carry on a bag or print your boarding pass at the gate or use the bathroom or want a nice seat or look at the flight attendant the wrong way, Then a spirit ticket was actually a pretty good deal.

=== Low Margins and Lawsuits (13:17) ===

[00:21:23]  And obviously, as much as I like to make fun of spirit, it's good for the market to have options like this.
[00:21:30]  More choice is always better for the consumer without exception.
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[00:22:37]  So, what's so perverse about the downfall of Spirit is that the Biden administration made this exact same argument again and again.
[00:22:45]  You know, they appeared on national television to inform the American people that Spirit Airlines provided valuable competition in a very expensive market.
[00:22:53]  And then, in the same breath, The Biden administration filed a lawsuit that ensured the total destruction of Spirit Airlines.
[00:23:00]  Specifically, the Biden administration claimed that the proposed merger of JetBlue and Spirit, which would have created the fifth largest airline in the country, was illegal under antitrust laws.
[00:23:10]  Watch.
[00:23:12]  Today, the Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to stop the merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines.
[00:23:21]  We are joined in that lawsuit by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the state of New York, and the District of Columbia.
[00:23:28]  I'm here with Associate Attorney General Vinita Gupta and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki.
[00:23:35]  Our complaint alleges that JetBlue's proposed $3.8 billion acquisition of Spirit violates Section 7 of the Clayton Act.
[00:23:44]  We allege that if allowed to proceed, this merger will limit choices and drive up ticket prices for passengers across the country.
[00:23:53]  And we further allege that the impact of this merger will be particularly harmful for travelers who rely on what are known as ultra-low-cost carriers.
[00:24:02]  In order to fly, those include working and middle class Americans who travel for personal as opposed to business reasons and who must pay their own way.
[00:24:13]  By acquiring Spirit, JetBlue will eliminate the largest ultra low cost carrier in the United States.
[00:24:23]  Yeah, I don't.
[00:24:24]  I mean, we're using the term working class here pretty loosely because I think in all those videos that we just showed you, I sincerely doubt that any of the people in those videos.
[00:24:35]  Are working at all.
[00:24:37]  But anyway, that's speaking of working, that whole plan worked out, didn't it?
[00:24:43]  You know, Merrick Garland was once considered a serious judge.
[00:24:46]  He was supposed to be a Supreme Court justice, and then he becomes attorney general, and he immediately torches his reputation and nearly brings down the entire country with him.
[00:24:55]  He oversees flagrant lawfare against Donald Trump, the leading presidential candidate.
[00:24:59]  He takes orders from the teachers' unions and school boards and claims that parents are a domestic terror threat.
[00:25:06]  And now this.
[00:25:08]  Now, what's funny about the Clayton Act and antitrust law in general is that it's extremely subjective.
[00:25:13]  You should pull up the text of the antitrust laws sometime and read them.
[00:25:17]  They're very much open to interpretation.
[00:25:19]  For example, the text of the Clayton Act states that mergers are illegal when, the effect of such acquisition may be substantially to lessen competition or to tend to create a monopoly.
[00:25:32]  Well, what does that mean exactly?
[00:25:34]  I mean, how do we determine when competition is substantially lessened?
[00:25:38]  And how do we determine if that trade off is worth it under the circumstances?
[00:25:42]  Well, under antitrust law, there's something called the rule of reason.
[00:25:46]  And this doctrine essentially holds that judges need to use their logic and reason and come to a reasonable conclusion.
[00:25:54]  Any questions?
[00:25:56]  If you think I'm exaggerating, look at what a federal court judge, in this case, the federal court judge, a Reagan appointee in Massachusetts named William G. Young, wrote in his decision.
[00:26:06]  The judge agreed with the Biden administration and blocked the merger.
[00:26:10]  And his opinion ended with this.
[00:26:12]  Quote, Spirit is a small airline, but there are those who love it.
[00:26:16]  To those dedicated customers of Spirit, this one's for you.
[00:26:23]  Which, first of all, nobody loved Spirit Airlines.
[00:26:27]  There's no customers that, there's not a single person, not a single customer, not a single American has ever said the phrase, I love Spirit Airlines.
[00:26:36]  No, it's, if you have to use it, you tolerate it, you put up with it.
[00:26:42]  But love, no.
[00:26:45]  But more to the point, he clearly thought that by blocking the merger, he would save the airline.
[00:26:49]  This is a judge with no background in economics or markets.
[00:26:52]  He has no idea what he's doing.
[00:26:54]  And there's no jury trial because the government was seeking an injunction.
[00:26:58]  So the government only needs to convince one judge.
[00:27:01]  And in this case, this single judge agrees with the Biden administration's bureaucrats who think that they can somehow compel Spirit Airlines to remain in business.
[00:27:10]  Here's what the New York Times reported about the planned merger when the decision from the judge came down.
[00:27:14]  This is from January 2024.
[00:27:15]  Quote, Lawyers for JetBlue argued in court last month that the merger would allow it to better compete with the four large national airlines, bringing prices down overall.
[00:27:24]  The Biden Justice Department argued that a larger JetBlue would act just like its bigger competitors while taking away a low cost option for travelers.
[00:27:32]  Analysis presented at trial showed that when Spirit introduces a new route, fares, including those on JetBlue flights, come down.
[00:27:39]  Spirit's share price tumbled 47% by Tuesday afternoon following the news, while JetBlue's share price closed up 5%.
[00:27:46]  Spirit's shares fell in part because the proposed merger.
[00:27:49]  Would have been a lifeline to the company, which had been struggling with operational issues and had not turned a profit since before the pandemic.
[00:27:55]  During the pandemic, many domestic airlines took on a mountain of debt because they were trying to replace older aircraft with much newer ones.
[00:28:03]  So the judge in the Biden administration said they were saving the company, and immediately the shares dropped by 50%.
[00:28:12]  This is why you should never, under any circumstance, trust the government when it decides to manipulate free markets.
[00:28:18]  It always ends like this.
[00:28:19]  They simply don't know what they're doing.
[00:28:22]  None of them have any idea what they're doing.
[00:28:23]  Not the judges, not the bureaucrats.
[00:28:26]  And indeed, the inevitable result is that just a couple of years later, everything ends in disaster.
[00:28:31]  Now, to be clear about this, I'm not pro monopoly or pro.
[00:28:34]  I mean, I have no great love for any of these major airlines either.
[00:28:41]  And there were some arguments in favor of blocking the merger that were worth considering.
[00:28:47]  So here's Democrat Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut making one of those arguments.
[00:28:51]  Even if he's generally an idiot, this was reasonable enough.
[00:28:57]  Listen.
[00:28:59]  So, this week, at the request of the Biden administration, a federal judge blocked a big airline merger between two airlines you've heard of, JetBlue and Spirit.
[00:29:07]  I want to tell you why this is really important for consumers, but also for the country.
[00:29:14]  The Biden administration has made it a priority to try to break up these big monopolies, to try to infuse more competition into our economy.
[00:29:25]  You know this is a problem because you've seen these massive companies.
[00:29:30]  Become more and more powerful.
[00:29:32]  And that's really bad for workers.
[00:29:34]  It's really bad for consumers.
[00:29:36]  It just sort of guts the emotional soul of the country when you've only got a couple companies that have this much power.
[00:29:44]  Well, that's happened in the airline industry.
[00:29:47]  There's only a handful of really big carriers.
[00:29:50]  Spirit is one of the few budget airlines out there.
[00:29:54]  And wherever Spirit flies, there's a pressure for prices to stay low.
[00:30:00]  The big airlines have to compete with the low cost carrier.
[00:30:04]  If Spirit and JetBlue merged, then that downward pressure on price would be removed everywhere that Spirit flies.
[00:30:14]  JetBlue admitted that it was planning to increase fares by 25% or more after they merged with Spirit on the routes that Spirit flies.
[00:30:28]  Yeah, so we want Spirit to still be around so that they are another option and they keep prices down for everybody.
[00:30:35]  And so, the best way to do that is to make sure that Spirit goes out of business so that they don't exist at all.
[00:30:41]  Better for them to go out of business than to merge with another airline, apparently.
[00:30:46]  Now, it's true that in court filings, JetBlue admitted that they intended to reduce the number of seats on their planes if they merged with Spirit, which would naturally increase the cost of each ticket on some routes by as much as 40%.
[00:30:56]  Additionally, by one estimate, for routes where both Spirit and JetBlue were operating, studies showed that the fares tended to be around 20% lower compared to only 8% lower where only JetBlue was operating.
[00:31:06]  And yes, if these are the only data points you consider, then.
[00:31:10]  Maybe it looks like the merger is a bad idea, but the problem with this reasoning is obvious.
[00:31:14]  These savings are only worthwhile if they're sustainable.
[00:31:18]  If the savings are so substantial that they'll destroy the company within two years, and then after that, all prices will go up substantially because there's less competition, then the savings definitely were not worth it.
[00:31:30]  Two years of slightly lower fares does not justify the permanent destruction of a major airline as well as the elimination of 17,000 jobs.
[00:31:38]  JetBlue was offering a reasonable alternative.
[00:31:41]  Slightly higher fares, still lower than the big four carriers in many cases, as well as the continued existence of Spirit as a competitive airline nationwide.
[00:31:50]  And the Biden administration and this one judge decided otherwise.
[00:31:54]  They decided that it would substantially lessen competition under the Clayton Act to allow this merger.
[00:32:00]  So now we have a lot less competition.
[00:32:02]  I mean, it's almost as if the law needs to be repealed because it's completely useless.
[00:32:08]  The other reason this decision made no sense is that there's no monopoly in the industry at all.
[00:32:13]  And there's really nothing approaching a monopoly or a lack of competition.
[00:32:18]  Delta, American, Southwest, and United each have roughly 17% of the market.
[00:32:22]  In other words, 80% of the market is pretty much evenly split between four very powerful companies that compete with one another on most major routes.
[00:32:32]  That's a healthy market by any definition.
[00:32:34]  JetBlue only has around 5% of the market, Spirit had around 4%.
[00:32:38]  The idea that JetBlue and Spirit were going to create some kind of juggernaut or an anti consumer monopoly is simply not true.
[00:32:44]  I mean, it's ridiculous.
[00:32:46]  The reason Spirit was struggling, although no one in the Biden administration would ever admit it, was that the big carriers began offering so called basic economy seats.
[00:32:55]  They weren't as cheap as spirits, but they were reasonably close.
[00:32:57]  And that's all the airlines needed to do because the experience of flying on a spirit plane was so utterly awful in every conceivable way.
[00:33:05]  So once the big four started competing with spirit by reducing legroom, charging more for bags, refusing to refund tickets, and so on, it was game over.
[00:33:15]  The large airlines adopted some of spirit's tactics without forcing customers to endure a very ghetto, unpleasant experience, or at least not as bad.
[00:33:23]  Essentially, the big carriers rendered spirit redundant.
[00:33:26]  Unless it merged with JetBlue and made changes to how the planes were operating, it was going to die out.
[00:33:31]  And yes, rising fuel costs due to the war in Iran were the nail in the coffin.
[00:33:36]  But Spirit was struggling financially for many years before that, which is why JetBlue proposed the merger in the first place.
[00:33:41]  Simply put, Spirit stopped being relevant.
[00:33:45]  Everybody associated them with WorldStar instead of being the only place to get affordable fares.
[00:33:52]  And while that's a loss for the people who depended on Spirit for cheap tickets, as well as Spirit's employees, as well as the people who depended on You know, spirit for viral footage of airport bras.
[00:34:03]  It's also an opportunity to create a new business model for this particular segment of the market.
[00:34:08]  Now, yes, it's possible that the pendulum is going to swing away from affordable air travel towards a situation where air travel is once again a privilege reserved for the very wealthy.
[00:34:19]  But there is a possible middle ground that we could try where budget friendly options exist, but at the same time, basic standards of decorum are also enforced.
[00:34:32]  So, imagine a spirit type of airline where everything is basically the same, except you're not allowed to wear pajamas on the plane.

=== Building a New Model (02:43) ===

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=== Lessons from Alamo Drafthouse (11:19) ===

[00:37:24]  Minimum purchase required, restrictions apply.
[00:37:26]  See Representative for warranty and promotion details.
[00:37:30]  It's not a crazy or unprecedented idea at all.
[00:37:32]  I mean, it's been tried in many other markets to great success.
[00:37:36]  One of the most notable examples is the Alamo Drafthouse, which became famous in large part because they had a strict policy against using your phone in the theater.
[00:37:47]  It's a theater chain, and they were very strictly.
[00:37:50]  Anti phone.
[00:37:52]  They didn't care what your excuse was.
[00:37:54]  They didn't care if you had an emergency or if you were just using your phone's flashlight to find your seat or anything like that.
[00:37:59]  The rule was both simple and strict use your phone in the theater and you get thrown out.
[00:38:05]  Period.
[00:38:05]  You don't get a refund.
[00:38:07]  You're just escorted from the premises and banned.
[00:38:11]  And of course, they enforced other rules of decorum too, like no talking, no beating people up, no smoking weed, and so on.
[00:38:20]  And these rules were the main competitive advantage for the entire chain of.
[00:38:23]  Theaters.
[00:38:23]  They started as a single theater in a parking garage, and now they're all over the country.
[00:38:28]  They're one of the biggest theater chains in North America.
[00:38:30]  Yes, they had other ideas too, like waiters who delivered food to your seat, and they had unique programming that appealed to movie buffs.
[00:38:36]  But the main defining feature, the one that made them incredibly popular, was the fact that they enforced rules of decorum.
[00:38:43]  And when customers violated those rules of decorum, the theater didn't apologize to them.
[00:38:48]  Instead, Alamo Drafthouse would post their voicemails and mock them on the internet.
[00:38:53]  They make an example of anybody who complained.
[00:38:55]  Listen.
[00:39:00]  Yeah, I was wondering if you guys actually enjoy treating your customers like a piece of stuff.
[00:39:05]  Because that's how I felt when I went to the Alamo Draft House.
[00:39:09]  Okay?
[00:39:10]  You know what?
[00:39:12]  I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to text in your little crappy ass theater.
[00:39:16]  It was too dark in that place for me to find my seat.
[00:39:20]  All right?
[00:39:21]  I was using my phone as a flashlight to get to my phone.
[00:39:25]  So, excuse me for using my phone in the United States of America, where you are free to text in a theater.
[00:39:34]  I was not aware that I couldn't text in your theater, alright?
[00:39:39]  I've texted in all the other theaters in Austin, and no one ever gave a f about what I was doing in my phone, alright?
[00:39:47]  And it was on silent.
[00:39:48]  It wasn't on loud.
[00:39:50]  It wasn't bothering anybody.
[00:39:51]  You guys, obviously, were being me, and I'm sure that's what you do to rip people off.
[00:39:59]  You take my money, and then you throw me out.
[00:40:02]  I will never be coming back to your Alamo draft house or whatever.
[00:40:08]  I'd rather go to a regular theater where people are actually polite.
[00:40:12]  And you know, I'm going to tell everyone about how you are.
[00:40:17]  And I'm pretty sure you guys are being on purpose.
[00:40:20]  So thanks for making me feel like a customer.
[00:40:22]  Thanks for taking my money out.
[00:40:30]  Now, that video was posted in 2011.
[00:40:32]  It went viral immediately and racked up millions of views.
[00:40:35]  And it helped create positive word of mouth that allowed Alamo Draft House to expand like a weed at a time when movie theaters had been collapsing.
[00:40:43]  Because, of course, Any normal person hears that voicemail and you think, yeah, that's exactly the kind of person I don't want.
[00:40:50]  If this is a theater where that kind of person in the voicemail is not going to be, then that's where I want to be.
[00:40:57]  It turns out that if you create an environment that isn't loud and obnoxious and annoying, people will actually pay money to see a movie on a very large screen.
[00:41:07]  And it was a successful model for more than a decade.
[00:41:11]  But earlier this year, Alamo Drafthouse decided to change their policy, seemingly out of nowhere.
[00:41:15]  This is from Variety.
[00:41:16]  Quote Alamo Drafthouse, the dine in theater chain that's popular among cinephiles, is trying to reduce distractions at the movies.
[00:41:22]  So the Texas based cinema company is introducing a new mobile ordering service that will replace the traditional mode of pen and paper at the hands of servers.
[00:41:31]  Starting in February, Alamo Drafthouse locations will utilize a digital system that will let the guests browse the menu, order prior to and during the film, and pay directly from their phones.
[00:41:41]  The custom built dark screen system is designed to minimize interruptions that currently take place as guests are placing orders and paying their checks while the movie is.
[00:41:49]  Playing.
[00:41:50]  Despite the necessity of phone usage for any hungry audience members, Alamo Drafthouse maintains that its famous no talking, no texting policy were made in place and enforceable by employees.
[00:42:02]  Now, the reaction to this announcement was universally negative.
[00:42:05]  They completely destroyed their brand virtually overnight, and that tells you how important these rules of decorum were.
[00:42:11]  For example, The Hobbit Elijah Wood posted the following message on X in response to the changes A move completely antithetical to the ethos of the Alamo and those who love the theatrical experience they provide.
[00:42:23]  This is a profound and upsetting mistake.
[00:42:27]  Meanwhile, a reporter for IndieWire who used to be a fan of the Alamo Drafthouse now describes their theater experience as absolute hell after watching a movie there recently.
[00:42:35]  Quote Based on my limited experience with this new system, pivoting to QR codes will only allow the Drafthouse to move faster and more efficiently into going out of business forever.
[00:42:43]  We were instructed to use the QR system to police our fellow moviegoers, a dystopian premise made a million times worse by a truly noxious postscript about how Alamo appreciates the irony of using your phone to report people for using their phones.
[00:42:57]  Surprise, surprise, people were on their phones the entire effing movie to the extent that ratting out any one of them would have been a waste of time.
[00:43:06]  Now, imagine any other movie theater generating these kinds of reactions from their customers.
[00:43:10]  Every other movie theater is seen as a fungible, disgusting, empty, hollowed out husk of a former era.
[00:43:17]  But Alamo Drafthouse built an identity, and they did it by enforcing basic standards of decency.
[00:43:23]  And there's no reason why a new airline or even an existing airline can't do exactly the same thing.
[00:43:30]  Now, I'm not even talking about particularly high standards here, just like basic things.
[00:43:36]  Here's just a few ideas for starters.
[00:43:38]  No phone conversations, obviously.
[00:43:42]  I would start that in the terminal, like at the gate.
[00:43:45]  You can't have loud phone conversations or certainly conversations on your speakerphone at the gate.
[00:43:53]  If you do that, you can't board the plane.
[00:43:55]  No music whatsoever if it's audible to those around you.
[00:43:59]  At any point from when you get to the gate to when your plane lands and you're off the plane, no audible sounds of any kind coming from your phone at any point for any reason.
[00:44:09]  Or you're banned for life.
[00:44:11]  No morbidly obese people allowed unless they buy out the entire row.
[00:44:15]  No carry on luggage at all.
[00:44:17]  No requesting a wheelchair unless your doctor personally calls the airline from the hospital and verifies that you're disabled.
[00:44:24]  No passengers who smell like weed or anything else.
[00:44:28]  No passengers who aren't wearing pants.
[00:44:30]  No pajamas.
[00:44:31]  No sweatpants.
[00:44:33]  No passengers who wear those creepy little face masks, the ones who still do that.
[00:44:38]  All window shades have to remain open at all times.
[00:44:41]  It's more of a personal preference, but I'm going to put it on my list of rules because this is my list and I can do what I want.
[00:44:47]  And, you know, this might seem a little bit extreme, but how about a $100 charge to use the bathroom?
[00:44:52]  To give people an incentive to use the bathroom on the ground and to minimize the number of times people get up and force you to move.
[00:44:59]  And if they don't pay the fine and they have an accident in their seat, then they go to federal prison.
[00:45:03]  Maybe you'll enforce that for flights under two hours.
[00:45:08]  Like be an adult and use the bathroom ahead of time.
[00:45:11]  You should be.
[00:45:12]  You should be able to use the bathroom at a time and not have to use the bathroom for two hours.
[00:45:15]  You should be able to do that.
[00:45:19]  So, these are just off the top of my head.
[00:45:20]  It's all basic stuff.
[00:45:22]  And yet, as far as I know, no airline has really implemented any of these rules, even the ones that are slightly more reasonable.
[00:45:30]  And a few of them might be slightly on the extreme side, but for the most part, these are common sense ideas.
[00:45:35]  Admittedly, I didn't go to business school, so I'm not up on the lingo, but that's what I call a market opportunity.
[00:45:42]  It's time for some airline to jump on it now that we're eulogizing Spirit Airlines.
[00:45:48]  And in that spirit, one last time, I want to play some of their greatest hits as a send off to one of the worst airlines to ever exist, but also an airline that, you know, when compared to everybody else, wasn't actually that bad.
[00:46:03]  Go suck another dirty.
[00:46:06]  So there's every time.
[00:46:21]  You're dirty.
[00:46:23]  Yes, you are.
[00:46:38]  Well, it's very emotional.
[00:46:41]  It's hard to watch those bags getting chucked and their contents being completely destroyed without getting the slightest tear in your eye of nostalgia.
[00:46:51]  Think of all the content.
[00:46:52]  Think of all the content we're missing out on.
[00:46:55]  For someone in my business, that's the hardest.
[00:46:56]  That's the hardest part, is losing all the content.
[00:47:00]  What happened to Spirit Airlines was preventable on many levels.
[00:47:02]  The Biden administration interfered with the market and barred them from merging with JetBlue.
[00:47:06]  The people running the company didn't crack down on the degenerate passengers and ticket agents who destroyed the brand.
[00:47:12]  They also admitted that they were the taxi cabs of the sky.
[00:47:15]  And as a result, thousands of people are out of a job.
[00:47:18]  And even if they get a new job at another carrier, they have to start at the very bottom in terms of seniority.
[00:47:25]  And this was an avoidable disaster.
[00:47:26]  There's no question about it.
[00:47:28]  In fact, it was so avoidable and so telegraphed that it should herald the beginning of a new era in aviation a bold new world in which budget airline does not have to be synonymous with low class and gross.
[00:47:43]  That's what it means now.
[00:47:45]  It doesn't have to be that way.
[00:47:48]  So, yeah, Spirit Airlines may have generated near infinite content for the World Star community, but Spirit, through its failure and through its gate agents telling their colleagues to put their mouths on unmentionable things, it also may have paved the way for a better future.
[00:48:06]  And for that, and that alone, we should be grateful.
[00:48:12]  So, Godspeed, Spirit Wings.
[00:48:15]  You were too trashy for this world, but more than any other airline, you showed us what's possible.
[00:48:21]  That will do it for the show today.
[00:48:22]  Thanks for watching.
[00:48:24]  Thanks for listening.
[00:48:24]  Talk to you tomorrow.
[00:48:25]  Have a great day.
[00:48:26]  Godspeed.
[00:48:35]  I do believe that if people have committed treason against the United States of America, their statues should not be in the Capitol.

=== History Written by Victims (00:39) ===

[00:48:44]  History is written by the victims.
[00:48:45]  And since the 1960s, we've been told, mostly by people whose ancestors didn't even live here during the war, that the South committed treason.
[00:48:53]  But if the Confederates were traitors, then why was Jefferson Davis never put on trial for treason?
[00:49:02]  What were Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson afraid of?
[00:49:04]  Did they know something they're not allowed to say today?
[00:49:08]  It's time for the truth.
[00:49:11]  So here it is.
[00:49:12]  Robert E. Lee was a military genius and a man of immense honor.
[00:49:16]  It was beloved by Americans from the North and South for a century after the war.
[00:49:20]  This is the real history of the Civil War.