Spirit Airlines announced on May 2 that it would close all operations.
As a result, Spirit Airlines became so popular that after it announced it was disbanding, a website aimed at acquiring and reviving Spirit Airlines crashed as people pledged money to save the airline from dire straits. TikTok user Hunter Peterson created the site to crowdfund after Spirit Airlines announced on May 2 that it would cease operations. The company said it was in financial difficulty due to rising fuel prices and had canceled all flights and announced that its customer services were also shut down.“Hundreds of millions of dollars in additional liquidity are required to sustain the business, and Spirit simply does not have and cannot obtain it,” Dave Davis, Spirit’s president and chief executive, said in a statement. “This is extremely disappointing and not the outcome any of us wanted.”Peterson posted a video suggesting people raise money to keep Spirit flying, but the site crashed within days. “This is a genius idea: We nationalize Spirit Airlines,” Peterson said in the video. “Owned by the people. The airline disappeared. We created a new airline.”Letsbuyspiritair.com allows interested customers to commit to buying a stake in the proposed ownership of Spirit Airlines, which involves no money but is simply an expression of interest. “It started out as a joke, but it quickly spiraled out of control in the best way,” Peterson said in a TikTok video after the site was launched.The site now (May 4) says 124,755 founding backers have pledged a total of $88,071,428, but the average pledge, which has not been verified by site authorities, is $667. “The activity grew so rapidly that our servers were overwhelmed. We are now upgrading our infrastructure and will be back to full promised functionality within 24-48 hours. You can still browse the site. Promises are temporarily disabled. Please follow us for live updates on when we are committed to reopening,” the website reads.In a TikTok video posted on May 3, Peterson said he was seeking connections with developers to upgrade the promised website, public relations professionals to manage press outreach, lawyers with aviation experience and airline executives who could provide much-needed details.
Why is Hunter Peterson interested in saving Spirit Airlines?
Peterson flew on Spirit for 24 hours straight to create content. In a YouTube video that has been viewed about 93,000 times, Peterson visited five of Spirit’s busiest airports, counting only the time he spent on airplanes as part of the project.
