White House Reportedly Considers Using Spirit Airlines To Transport Troops as Part of Takeover

Call it Spirit de corps.

The White House is reportedly mulling a takeover of Spirit Airlines in a move that would see the troubled carrier’s planes used to transport U.S. soldiers and military equipment, CBS News reported on Friday.

Citing U.S. officials, the report said the White House is considering invoking the Defense Production Act as part of a gambit to save the airline.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump addressed reports that the administration was considering taking a stake in Spirit, which has declared bankruptcy twice in the last two years.

“We’re looking at helping them,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office. “We have 18,000 people that live in this country that are great people and great employees. We’re thinking about doing it, helping them out, meaning bailing them out. Or buying it. I think we just buy it. We’d be getting it virtually debt-free. They have some good aircrafts. They have good assets. And when the price of oil goes down, we’ll sell it for a profit. I’d love to be able to save those jobs. I’d love to be able to save an airline.”

The next day, CBS News reported:

The government would lend Spirit $500 million at a reasonable rate interest, and become the top debtor in the bankruptcy pecking order. The loan would be protected by Spirit assets that would exceed the government’s costs, and would provide taxpayers with a warrant — the right to own 90% of the company after it emerges from bankruptcy.

The Pentagon would use Spirit’s excess capacity for transporting troops, military cargo or other missions, sources told CBS News.

The airline would then likely be sold to another carrier.

Passed in 1950 at the onset of the Korean War, the Defense Production Act gives the president wide-ranging powers that allow him to control domestic industry during times of national emergency.

Administration officials declined to comment to CBS News.

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