The story began as a lighthearted jest: a voice actor humorously suggesting on TikTok that they start a crowdfunding campaign to purchase the now-defunct Spirit Airlines. Surprisingly, within days, the initiative amassed over $88 million in pledges.
On May 2, Spirit Airlines officially ceased operations, a casualty of persistent financial struggles exacerbated by escalating fuel costs linked to the ongoing conflict with Iran. The airline’s closure marked the end of a tumultuous journey, as financial pressures proved insurmountable.
“Sustaining the business required hundreds of millions of additional dollars of liquidity that Spirit simply does not have and could not procure. This is tremendously disappointing and not the outcome any of us wanted,” stated Dave Davis, President and CEO of Spirit Airlines, in a heartfelt announcement.
As flights came to a halt and customer service lines faded to silence, the humorous crowdfunding proposal gained unexpected momentum, capturing the public’s imagination.
Hunter Peterson, the voice actor behind the viral campaign, garnered millions of views with his playful idea to “nationalize Spirit Airlines. Owned by the people. We make a new airline.” What started as a tongue-in-cheek suggestion quickly evolved into a widespread movement.
Peterson soon launched letsbuyspiritair.com, pitching it as a grassroots effort to reclaim Spirit Airlines before private equity could snap up its remains – modeled loosely on the Green Bay Packers, which are owned by hundreds of thousands of fans through a unique public shareholding structure rather than a single owner.
The pledge allows interested patrons to pledge a share into the proposed ownership of Spirit Airlines, focusing on interest rather than a non-binding pledge.
At the time of writing, so many donators have flocked to the website, that the site crashed, with a message stating: ‘We are upgrading infrastructure right now and will be back with full pledge functionality within 24-48 hours.’
It started out as a joke: A voice actor taking to TikTok with the idea of crowdfunding with the goal of buying the now-defunct Spirit Airlines. Days later, the campaign has grossed over $88 million in pledges
Peterson soon launched letsbuyspiritair.com, pitching it as a grassroots effort to reclaim Spirit Airlines before private equity could snap up its remains
At the time of the pre-crash, the website had garnered $88 million in pledges, with an average pledge size of $667. The minimum pledge was $45, modeled off the average price of a one-way Spirit ticket.
And around 124,755 individuals expressed interest in the buyback plan.
A day after the site went up, Peterson posted again saying he was ‘genuinely crashing out’ after seeing that his site had drawn $2,314,752 million from 4,817 founding patrons with an average pledge of $481.
In addition to the website, Peterson created an Instagram account, Spirit Airlines 2.0., which has ballooned to 187,000 followers.
It’s not the first time Peterson has referenced the airline on his social media. In 2025, he posted a YouTube video doing a challenge where he flies on Spirit for 24 hours straight to get a sense of the low-cost carrier and how it operates in its busiest airports.
The video gained 94,000 views and Peterson revealed that the total of seven trips cost him a mere $675.
In the wake of his successful campaign, users flocked to the video to hail him as the future CEO, with one writing: ‘So we’re buying an airline?’
Though the campaign has garnered a hefty amount of support, experts tell the Daily Mail that it’s unlikely to be successful.
Peterson proposed the airline should be modeled loosely on the Green Bay Packers, which are owned by hundreds of thousands of fans through a unique public shareholding structure rather than a single owner
An empty Spirit Airlines check-in counter in the wake of its shutdown after the company announced they were ceasing operations after years of financial hardship
The website has garned $88 million in pledges, with an average pledge size of $667, since it crashed after a plethora of user flocked to donate
Retail strategist Carol Spieckerman called the campaign ‘viral performance art,’ noting the math falls far short of making a real acquisition possible.
‘They’ve raised roughly $23-26 million in non-binding pledges against an estimated acquisition cost of $1.7 billion.
‘That’s 1.5 percent of what they’d need. Even if the pledges were binding – which they’re not – and even if every pledge actually converted to cash, which they won’t, this isn’t a realistic path to ownership,’ Spieckerman said.
Spirit had desperately tried in their final hours to broker a deal with the Trump administration, but the $500 million lifeline they were hoping to secure failed.
She also noted that the Green Bay Packers comparison ‘falls apart immediately’ as its community-based model is grandfathered un under NFL rules that ‘explicitly prohibit it for any other team’.
As Spirit Airlines is already in formal liquidation, its assets are set to be distributed by a bankruptcy court to repay creditors – complicating any outside effort to acquire the airline.
Even so, the sums touted, if real Spieckerman noted, so far fall well short of what would likely be needed.
Earlier this year, a Louisiana-based investor group, NewP3, proposed a $1 billion recapitalization plan for Spirit – an effort that ultimately failed to materialize.
Beyond funding, regulatory barriers loom large, with federal certification alone taking years and tens of millions of dollars before operations could even begin.
Spirit’s existing certification cannot simply be transferred without regulatory approval and creditor consent.
However, Spieckerman noted that the campaign tapped into something real: frustration. Specifically with private equity ‘stripping assets, anger about consolidation in the airline industry and a desire for community ownership’.
‘That’s something worth paying attention to, even if this specific effort goes nowhere,’ Spieckerman said.
