Don't put taxpayers on the hook for subsidizing low-budget airlines

The downfall of Spirit Airlines has mushroomed from a routine business failure into a far messier test case against government intervention in the free market.

The unfortunate series of Spirit’s government-facilitated events began three years ago, when the Biden administration blocked Spirit’s merger with JetBlue on the grounds that absorbing a low-cost carrier would reduce fare competition and raise prices. That decision removed what was, at the time, the company’s most viable path to stability.