Fox Business Host Pushes Back as Trump Official Says Spirit Shutdown ‘Going Pretty Darn Well’

Fox Business host Stuart Varney pushed back on Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy on Monday morning after he submitted that the Spirit Airlines shutdown was “going pretty darn well.”

Duffy appeared on the network shortly after Spirit Airlines shut down over the weekend after 30 years in business.

Varney began by asking Duffy, “What can you do now?”

After Duffy blamed President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice for not allowing a merger between Spirit and JetBlue in 2022, Duffy circled back to a report moments earlier from Fox Business reporter Jeff Flock, who reported that thousands of Spirit passengers were left stranded as a result of the shutdown.

“I’ll take one issue with what Jeff said, that passengers were stranded,” Duffy told Varney. “You didn’t see chaos at the airport. President Trump was making sure that if the airline is gonna go down, we’re talking to the CEOs of other carriers, making sure they’re gonna step up and help with special fares for those Spirit customers, those Americans to get them to their destinations, which the airlines have done. Those who bought tickets are already getting refunds with Spirit. Tickets that weren’t flown. So, again, things are as chaotic as it could be. It’s going pretty darn well with the wind down of an airline.

Varney pushed back, saying, “But a discount carrier is gone. That means competition is less in the airline industry.”

Duffy countered: “You would have had more competition had you allowed JetBlue and Spirit to merge.”

He added, “It would have been a stronger airline, and again, I care about vibrant markets. Competition means better pricing for you and me when we fly, and we have the higher-octane flyers, more services, the Deltas and the Uniteds, but we want low-cost carriers to a different part of the market.”

Read the exchange below:

STUART VARNEY: And look who’s here now, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on the set in New York City. Mr. Secretary, welcome back.

TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY SEAN DUFFY: It’s good to be back with you Stuart, thank you for having me. Welcome, open arms, I think they had a band here somewhere…

VARNEY: I can arrange it. Give it some time, all right? [laughter] A lot of the blame for the Spirit demise, in my opinion, goes to the Biden administration. And I think you blame them too. But my question is, what can you do now?

DUFFY: So first, Elizabeth Warren trying to say that it was a Republican-appointed judge, a Ronald Reagan judge that sealed the fate. No, it was a Biden DOJ that actually sued on the merger and put it front of a judge and people were celebrating he wasn’t going to allow the merger right after the merger was denied between Spirit and JetBlue. Spirit went into bankruptcy, second bankruptcy last year. They were bleeding money, bleeding market share. I’ll take one issue with what Jeff [Flock] said, that passengers were stranded. You didn’t see chaos at the airport. President Trump was making sure that if the airline is gonna go down, we’re talking to the CEO’s of other carriers, making sure they’re gonna step up and help with special fares for those Spirit customers, those Americans to get them to their destinations, which the airlines have done. Those who bought tickets are already getting refunds with Spirit. Tickets that weren’t flown. So, again, things are as chaotic as it could be. It’s going pretty darn well with the wind down of an airline.

VARNEY: But a discount carrier is gone.

DUFFY: That’s true.

VARNEY: That means competition is less in the airline industry.

DUFFY: And you would have had more competition had you allowed JetBlue and Spirit to merge. It would have been a stronger airline, and again, I care about vibrant markets. Competition means better pricing for you and me when we fly, and we have the higher octane flyers, more services, the Deltas and the Uniteds, but we want low cost carriers to a different part of the market.

Spirit Airlines shut down on Saturday after CEO Dave Davis spoke with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last week about a potential bailout.

While Trump said on Friday he hoped a deal could be reached, Spirit ultimately decided to end operations.

Speaking from Newark, New Jersey, shortly after Spirit announced it was halting operations, Duffy said the budget air carrier’s business model “wasn’t working.”

“They couldn’t get to fiscal health,” Duffy said when asked about airlines struggling to keep up with rising costs associated with the war in Iran. “So this was not the impetus. The war was not the impetus for Spirit.”

Watch above via Fox Business.

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