Alison Sider

And then the war happened.

So fuel prices, you know, over a matter of weeks, double.

All airlines are kind of grappling with this, trying to pass along and hire fares and figuring out how they can manage.

Spirit realizes it's going to need a lot more money.

And that's when it turns to the federal government.

So Spirit spent the last few weeks kind of looking for an 11th hour deal to somehow save the airline.

It was clear the creditors were sort of no longer going to support this agreement to come out of bankruptcy.

And they needed to find another source of capital.

And at that point, you know, the last resort would be going to the federal government.

So Dave Davis makes a call to Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, and she kind of helps connect them.

And they go to the commerce secretary and they start talking about like...

what could maybe the government do for Spirit?

And it seemed like they were getting, I mean, they were getting very close to an agreement for a deal that would give Spirit a loan of $500 million, and then the government would get the right to acquire an equity stake in the company.

And it could have gotten a stake of sort of up to 90% in Spirit.

He seemed really invested in the idea of saving all those jobs.

You know, he said multiple times, like, you know, I want to save an airline.

Like, he really liked the idea.

Was it a good deal?

I mean, I guess good deal for who?

Like, I guess the question was, you know, like, what are the taxpayers going to get out of this?