We’ll Take It: A Tiktoker Rallies Pledges To Buy Spirit Airlines After Its Abrupt Weekend Collapse

In Brief

When Spirit Airlines unopen down overnight Saturday — canceling each flights, letting spell of 17,000 employees, and telling ticketholders to conscionable not travel to nan airport — group were flabbergasted but besides bereft. For each its indignities, Spirit was cheap. Then 1 of them had an idea.

Hunter Peterson, a sound character pinch predominant flyer grievances, posted a TikTok asking: what if 20% of American adults chipped successful nan value of a Spirit fare and conscionable . . . bought it? He called it “Spirit 2.0: Owned by nan People.” Within hours he’d thrown up a website — a janky, one-hour job, by his ain admittance — and by Sunday, 36,000 “founding patrons” had pledged astir $23 million, crashing his servers successful nan process.

None of it is existent money. These are non-binding pledges. Also worthy noting: nan existent costs of acquiring and relaunching an hose runs into nan billions. Peterson knows this. In a video posted earlier today, he winkingly tried recruiting aviation lawyers, PR people, and lawyers pinch a one-word ask: “Help?”

“I cognize what I don’t know,” he told his followers, but “you’re committing to this bit, truthful I’m committing to this bit.”

Subscribe for nan industry’s biggest tech news