Emma Peasley

They create basic economy.

Then they lock in customers with beefed up loyalty programs where size is an advantage.

But Spirit lives on with its core customers, these budget travelers who don't fly enough to care about loyalty points.

OK, so so far everything has been on the supply side, so the airlines themselves.

But what about the demand side?

Okay, so flying, optional, obviously, gas and groceries, not so much.

So to sum it up, we've got legacy airlines competing on price with things like basic economy, supercharged loyalty programs, and a disappearing customer base.

That all brings us to today, where we are now talking about a potential government rescue program for Spirit Airlines, or maybe having another airline buy them.

This episode began as a newsletter by Greg, and he writes a weekly deep original essay about something going on in the economy.

They're always going viral.

You can check them out at npr.org slash planet money newsletter.

We'll also have a link in the show notes.

And if you want more airline history, we have another episode that tells the story of the original budget airline long before Spirit.

We'll have a link to that in the show notes as well.