A TikToker has launched a campaign along with 125,000 strangers to buy Spirit Airlines, which came just hours after the company announced it was ceasing operations.
On Saturday (May 2), the budget airline shared that it would be shutting down and cancelling all flights, effective immediately.
This sparked a reaction online, with one TikTok user making a suggestion on how people could save the airline.
Known online as hitherehunter, the user explained: “Okay, I had a genius idea. Spirit Airlines just went bankrupt, right? I'm the guy that flew Spirit Airlines for 24 hours straight.
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“There's more than 250 million individuals over the age of 18 in the United States.
“Now, if we took only 20% of them and paid basically the average fare of a Spirit Airlines flight, which is somewhere around 30 to 40 dollars, we could buy Spirit Airlines.
“This is a genius idea. We nationalize Spirit Airlines. Owned by the people. Airlines gone. We make a new airline. Let's buy an airline. I should make a Venmo for this.”
This prompted a response from others who took to the TikTok comment section to share their own thoughts on the matter, with one user writing: “As long as the CEO doesn’t make $8.2m. Oh and whenever any of the executives travel, they have to travel coach on Spirit.”
Another said: “We can actually make it a monthly subscription where people pay $35 a month and fly FREE whenever they wanna fly.”
A third person commented: “I’ll pitch in $10,000 if I can be CEO.”
And a fourth added: “Someone said, we should do this with Healthcare!? YOOOO!!!! Let’s make our own healthcare system!!!”
The TikTok has had over six million views at the time of writing and gained more than 857,000 likes.
Since then, the user has launched a website titled Let’s Buy Spirit, with the site reading: “Spirit didn't fail because people stopped flying. It failed because Wall Street loaded it with debt and extracted every dollar it could. The routes are real. The demand is real. The only thing missing is ownership that answers to the people - not to shareholders.”
So far, a whopping $132 million has been pledged by 143,548 people, with the target being $1.75 billion.
The site continued: “The minimum pledge is $45 - the average price of a one-way Spirit ticket. You've already paid to fly on this airline. Now you can help own it. Every dollar pledged is a vote against private equity and a vote for an airline that answers to its people.”