U.S. no-frills pioneer Spirit Airlines filed for fresh chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday, as dwindling cash and mounting losses derailed its turnaround efforts since emerging from a previous Chapter 11 reorganization in March.

The carrier, recognizable by its bright yellow jets, has struggled to steady operations since emerging from its first bankruptcy in March.

Flights, ticket sales, reservations and operations will continue, the airline said on Friday.

Spirit had been attempting to rebrand as a more premium airline to keep pace with post-pandemic travel trends that have challenged the viability of the ultra-low-cost model.

But Spirit’s recovery was further hit by uncertainty from tariffs and budget cuts, which have cooled consumer spending and driven down domestic airfares.

The airline was forced to raise going-concern doubts earlier this month.

“Since emerging from our previous restructuring, which was targeted exclusively on reducing Spirit’s funded debt and raising equity capital, it has become clear that there is much more work to be done and many more tools are available to best position Spirit for the future,” said CEO Dave Davis.

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The Florida-based airline first sought bankruptcy protection last November after years of losses, failed merger bids and mounting debt, becoming the first major U.S. carrier to do so since 2011.

It posted a $1.2 billion net loss last year, with its troubles compounded by the collapse of a $3.8 billion merger with JetBlue Airways and RTX’s Pratt & Whitney engine issues that forced it to ground many of its Airbus jets.

Spirit began in 1964 as a long-haul trucking company before shifting to aviation in the 1980s, initially flying leisure packages under the name Charter One Airlines.

It rebranded as Spirit in 1992 and built its reputation as a discount carrier for budget-conscious travelers willing to skip extras like checked bags and seat assignments.

But the pandemic upended that model, as demand shifted toward more comfortable, experience-driven travel, leaving ultra-low-cost carriers struggling to adapt.

(Reporting by Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Maju Samuel)

Monopolies have been rigging the system for decades. They cozy up to Washington, throw cash around, hire armies of lobbyists, and manipulate rules so that everyday Americans always lose.

Thankfully, President Trump isn’t playing by their rules. He’s standing up for Main Street, not corporate boardrooms.

We first saw this with Big Tech. Mark Zuckerberg thought he could cut a favorable deal to get Facebook off the hook, possibly even counting on Trump to back him. Instead, the Trump administration allowed the case to go to trial, and Zuckerberg found himself sweating it out on the witness stand. 

Google attempted a similar stunt, claiming national security would be at risk if it faced a breakup. Trump’s DOJ wasn’t buying it.

“You know what is dangerous?” Antitrust chief Gail Slater asked outside the courthouse. “The threat Google presents to our freedom of speech, to our freedom of thought, to free American digital markets.” That case has now reached the remedies stage, and for the first time since AT&T in the 1980s, we could see a Big Tech monopoly actually broken apart. That’s how monopolies should be treated.

Now Ticketmaster is running the same playbook. 

Controlling 80% of the market, the ticket marketplace is infamous for outrageous fees and predatory practices, such as charging junk fees and allowing scalping bots to buy up most of its inventory, leaving regular fans at the mercy of price gougers. Yet now the monopoly wants Trump to think it’s the solution, not the problem. 

Ticketmaster’s owner, Live Nation, added a MAGA-friendly face to its board and is now floating “reform” ideas, like capping resale prices. Such caps would bankrupt almost all of Ticketmaster’s rivals, leaving the company even more dominant while pretending to “fix” the market.

It’s a double scam: they make the mess, then turn around and sell the “solution” as regulation.

It’s like an arsonist showing up with a bucket of water after lighting the fire.

Fortunately, the Trump administration is not paying any attention to Ticketmaster’s desperate attempt to protect itself from the White House’s wrath. It is already continuing the antitrust suit against Ticketmaster, and a ticketing reform plan set to drop in September could put the company’s “business as usual” to an end.

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Big Tech and Ticketmaster aren’t alone.

In June, the Trump administration hit Mexican bank CIBanco with the toughest sanctions possible, accusing it of aiding the fentanyl trade. A few weeks later, CIBanco — never before a client of Washington lobbyists — hired the MAGA-connected Rubin, Turnbull & Associates. The sanctions haven’t moved, and Trump has stood firm.

Amazon has also tried its usual political maneuvering on the president. When Trump won the White House, executives hired Brian Ballard — Trump’s former lawyer and Florida finance director — to lobby on Amazon’s behalf. They even contributed over $50,000 to the president’s inauguration. Did it work? No. Trump didn’t blink, and Amazon lost its effort to dodge federal antitrust charges.

Hardworking Americans are tired of being taken advantage of. Insider games, where a board seat or a lobbyist equals immunity, have gone on for too long. Trump sees it, and he’s the one president actually saying “No” loud enough for all of us to hear.

Trump is different from most politicians. He doesn’t feel he owes these corporations anything, and he isn’t inclined to give them a free pass. His administration is pushing back against any monopoly that harms consumers or breaks the law.

The bottom line? Corporate America needs to clean up its act or face the consequences. Because the Trump administration isn’t standing up for special interests, it’s standing up for everyday Americans like you and me.

* * *

Haley Kennington (@LadyKennington) is an investigative journalist and conservative commentator. She served as the Research Director & Story Editor for The Daily Wire’s “2020:The Plot Against the President” and the Research/Archive Editor for “What Is a Woman?“

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.