The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1773 - Idiot Politicians Killed Spirit Airlines. Here’s Why That’s Bad News For You.

00:00:00.000 There are many ways to eulogize Spirit Airlines, the budget airline that just shut down operations

00:00:06.040 for good. The easiest way and the most entertaining would be to simply play some of their most

00:00:10.200 ghetto moments. And as we all know, there are many, many such moments. Unless you're a world 0.96

00:00:16.180 star power user, there's simply no way you've seen all of them. And critics might say that

00:00:21.420 this would be a really cheap and insensitive way to memorialize an airline that's existed in one

00:00:26.080 form or another for more than 40 years and which employed nearly 20,000 people. And while those

00:00:32.340 critics would be absolutely right in saying that, we're still going to do it anyway in just a

00:00:37.660 second. But we're also going to talk about how exactly Spirit collapsed and how this could be

00:00:43.420 a moment to finally improve the abysmal quality of air travel in this country, which, as we've

00:00:48.320 discussed many times, has been in a state of constant decline for a long time now. A lot of

00:00:53.480 people are saying that Spirit's passengers are going to break containment and degrade the quality

00:00:58.880 of air travel for everybody else because they can't go to Spirit. Now they're going to go on

00:01:02.580 all the other airlines and we'll have to deal with them. But there's no reason that that needs

00:01:07.660 to happen. And at the moment, we're in a unique position to prevent it from happening, or at least

00:01:13.540 to prevent the degradation of air travel in general. That doesn't need to occur. This is,

00:01:19.840 after all, a historic moment. It's the first time that a major U.S. airline has shut down completely

00:01:24.820 in more than two decades without any kind of merger. In the middle of the night, all of their

00:01:29.900 operations stopped immediately. And as the last Spirit planes landed, their pilots and other

00:01:35.460 pilots and air traffic controllers started to get emotional, understandably, on the radio. Watch.

00:01:41.300 We're only taking 33, sir.

00:01:45.060 Yeah, is there any other spirit flights coming in after us?

00:01:49.100 Let me see. I don't see anything.

00:01:56.860 Now, unless you're...

00:01:58.520 I don't think you guys flew knots up from Aircon.

00:02:00.980 That's like the last thing I'm kind of seeing on here.

00:02:03.540 So you might be the last one.

00:02:07.220 It might be a repo flight, but yeah, I guess it was this probably the last revenue flight.

00:02:10.600 This is it tonight.

00:02:11.300 Well, it was a pleasure working with you guys, and I wish you the best.

00:02:16.300 Thank you very much.

00:02:18.300 Okay.

00:02:22.300 Thank you.

00:02:24.300 Hey, Spirit, all the best, and whatever comes next for you guys.

00:02:30.300 I really appreciate it. Thanks.

00:02:32.300 and spirit wings one just uh i want to say thoughts to all you and your colleagues over

00:02:39.280 there at uh at the bananas uh the next couple days in fact man we really appreciate that thank

00:02:44.980 you it's uh hard to believe this is it yeah no kidding it's always a pleasure to talk with you

00:02:50.060 guys on the radios yeah hope uh hope you guys make it out okay

00:02:53.480 Now, Spirit began as Charter One Airlines in 1983, where they mainly ferried gamblers to Atlantic City and Vegas before officially becoming Spirit Airlines in 1992.

00:03:08.160 And more recently, around 2014, they decided to adopt the bright yellow look of a New York City taxi, because when you think of safety and comfort and pilots who speak English, you definitely think of a New York City taxi.

00:03:23.140 The credit where it's due was a rare example of truth in advertising.

00:03:26.660 Spirit never pretended to be anything that it wasn't.

00:03:29.220 They also somehow never killed a single passenger in their entire history of operations, which is genuinely impressive,

00:03:35.760 especially considering the track record of most budget carriers.

00:03:39.240 Theirs was significantly better.

00:03:41.900 Frankly, it's impressive considering the track record of most major airlines, too.

00:03:45.720 I mean, just yesterday, a United Airlines plane, if you didn't see this, coming in for landing at Newark,

00:03:50.660 was flying so low that it hit a light pole and a tractor trailer so we'll play two clips here

00:03:56.080 the actual impact and then a video of a normal approach to the same airport you can see how

00:04:00.820 close the planes get to the the turnpike uh watch

00:04:20.660 Now, nobody was seriously injured somehow, which is really hard to believe.

00:04:32.160 But apparently the truck got hit by a plane and the guy was hardly injured.

00:04:36.960 Per Fox, quote, a preliminary investigation found the plane's landing gear underside struck a pole and a tractor trailer sending the pole into a Jeep traveling on the roadway.

00:04:46.700 now in this screenshot you can see the landing gear right behind the driver a half second before

00:04:53.680 impact but in any event as you may have noticed these kinds of accidents are becoming more and

00:04:58.980 more common spirit however avoided all of that they didn't have any fatal collisions of any kind

00:05:03.960 and obviously that's a major point in their favor another point in their favor if we're being honest

00:05:09.700 could be found in the insane fees that spirit charges on everything or charged including

00:05:15.520 printing a boarding pass. I mean, the truth is that Spirit charged so many little fees that

00:05:20.500 actually they managed to improve some aspects of flying, specifically the boarding process.

00:05:25.740 Ask yourself this question. What's the single biggest factor that slows down boarding? I mean,

00:05:31.400 why does it take 30 minutes from the start of boarding for the plane to leave the gate?

00:05:35.820 And the answer is carry-on luggage. Everybody stands in the aisle and spends a painfully long

00:05:39.880 period of time trying to jam their suitcase into the overhead bin or trying to locate a free space.

00:05:44.840 or whatever, whatever it is they're doing. There are studies and simulations showing that if

00:05:49.940 carry-ons were abolished, planes would board up to 40% faster. And most of these people are

00:05:55.420 trying to avoid the check bag fee. Well, how did Spirit solve that problem in a very innovative

00:06:02.280 way? Well, they charged for carry-on bags too. In fact, they typically charge more for carry-ons

00:06:06.940 than for check bags, which kind of makes sense actually. So there's no longer an incentive for

00:06:13.720 passengers to waste everybody's time in the aisles and that could be why uh last year

00:06:19.560 spirits on time performance was actually one of the best in the country behind only delta

00:06:23.500 and alaska airlines but no one ever talks about spirits on time performance instead they talk

00:06:28.760 about videos like this one don't play with me do not play with me because i'm not the one or the 0.98

00:06:38.900 you're not the one or the two let's go you ain't got shit stuff you ain't gonna do nothing 0.97

00:06:45.580 like i said keep my name out your mouth mine is always in yours for some reason no some 0.99

00:06:52.480 reason get all out of here out of here before i slap you're not gonna smack you try me you 1.00

00:06:59.000 think you're not trying to keep up i mean i'm drop kicked your ass 1.00

00:07:04.340 out of here you dirty yes you are out of here you and your rabbi 1.00

00:07:12.860 out of here go suck it like i said i said what i said and i said what i said please step to me 1.00

00:07:23.500 like you want it go suck another dirty 1.00

00:07:30.040 hmm she say i'm not the one or the two because i guess usually it's i'm not the one but she's 0.99

00:07:39.900 not the one or the two but is she the three there's a question once we get through one and two

00:07:45.840 that leaves that leaves you now you're number three i don't know now as a traveler who's paid

00:07:50.780 money for a ticket you can certainly make the case that you should never have to witness

00:07:54.960 unprofessional behavior like this, uh, even though it makes for very compelling online content,

00:08:01.600 you might point out that the local dog pound treats its animals with more civility and respect.

00:08:08.160 But if that's your attitude, you really need to consider the state of the competition. I mean,

00:08:12.720 for all their faults, those spirit ticketing agents were only attacking each other. I mean,

00:08:18.080 they weren't threatening to fight the customers in that video anyway, or making fun of them or 1.00

00:08:22.040 telling them to put dirty things in their mouths or any of that and in that respect uh these women 1.00

00:08:28.440 at spirit airlines are in order of magnitude better than what you get at say frontier airlines 1.00

00:08:32.800 watch they made their flight you think and you think oh you're gonna check me in i bet you we

00:08:39.420 won't okay i paid i paid for a ticket yeah i paid for a ticket for agent and you check in three

00:08:45.660 hours later hello i just said that i get on your fight yeah i just said that i would pay the 25

00:08:50.440 I literally paid for a ticket.

00:08:57.980 I'm here 30 minutes.

00:08:59.000 I'm here 30 minutes before my flight and they're not letting me check in.

00:09:03.740 And you're not getting on your flight.

00:09:04.980 Because it's a policy.

00:09:05.900 We don't control that.

00:09:10.080 I mean, hopefully they have enough cameras there.

00:09:12.560 So they got, they got, this is an interaction with three people and all three of them are

00:09:17.140 filming it.

00:09:17.700 So, hopefully we have all the angles. We have all the angles covered. You need good coverage when you're filming something, so that's good.

00:09:27.760 Now, one thing that bears mentioning here is that when people talk about Spirit Airlines, they act like it's the only budget carrier in the world, and they just ignore the existence of Frontier, Allegiant, Breeze Airways, and others.

00:09:40.020 And that's going to be important later when we get into the antitrust lawsuit that the Biden administration filed in order to block Spirit's merger with JetBlue.

00:09:47.700 In reality, there are several other budget airlines.

00:09:50.520 And yes, they might sass you a little bit more than even Spirit does.

00:09:56.060 They might even make fun of you while they prevent you from boarding the flight you paid for.

00:10:00.440 But if you're looking to save some money in exchange for a ticket that may or may not be worthless, the option is certainly there.

00:10:07.780 Also, even the big four carriers have a lot of issues on the customer service front, to put it mildly.

00:10:13.320 They might not fight with their passengers or each other, but sometimes they simply abandon gates entirely,

00:10:18.980 forcing passengers to take matters into their own hands.

00:10:22.240 This is a video that went viral just last night. Watch.

00:10:26.040 Hi, Delta Associates that aren't paying attention.

00:10:30.320 Please come to 30B.

00:10:33.840 You have a customer waiting.

00:10:37.240 thank you delta delta please come to 30b you have a customer waiting delta delta is anybody working

00:10:51.400 will be subject to confiscation okay that's fine if you want to do the baggage thing but

00:10:57.720 Customer service is needed at 30 feet.

00:11:03.340 Please come and help the customer at 30 feet.

00:11:08.880 Anybody on shift?

00:11:14.040 Delta, Delta, please help.

00:11:20.060 I mean, if you're going to be in a situation where they can't find anyone to go work the gate,

00:11:25.220 At least it's better to not be on the plane yet when that happens.

00:11:28.380 I think I told the story recently of having this happen on the opposite end.

00:11:34.720 When we landed, we were at the gate, and we had to wait in the plane at the gate for an hour for a gate agent to show up to open the door for us.

00:11:47.480 We can beat up on spirit, but when we do that, there's a real risk of ignoring clips like this, and we should be aware of that.

00:11:55.220 And of course, the real knock against Spirit Airlines isn't that their ticket agents are abusive towards customers or abandon their posts or whatever.

00:12:01.980 The real issue has always been with Spirit's passengers who developed the single worst reputation of any customer base, of any company, at any point in American history.

00:12:12.880 Spirit Airlines has all the violence of Waffle House, except you can't walk out the door and go home anytime you want.

00:12:18.620 And even worse, they don't serve waffles.

00:12:20.720 And that leads to scenes like this one from an airport in Florida.

00:12:26.220 It's a passenger revolt as total chaos erupts at the airport.

00:12:34.220 Police were called in to sort out turbulent scenes involving furious passengers at the Spirit Airlines terminal in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

00:12:42.220 Here's that ugly moment from another angle.

00:12:48.220 This passenger was taken away in handcuffs as things around him got heated.

00:12:53.220 This woman was hustled away by officers.

00:12:56.220 Another passenger was pinned to the ground by three cops.

00:13:00.220 The trouble exploded after Spirit canceled nine flights, including one to LaGuardia.

00:13:06.220 Somebody was like slamming a hand down on a counter and the police came.

00:13:10.220 Very angry, angry, angry people. Everybody had places to be and couldn't be there.

00:13:15.220 Check out this crazy scene. After order was restored, deputies line up behind the check-in counters.

00:13:22.220 Those spirit passengers, they're very spirited, maybe.

00:13:32.940 Now, to defend the passengers a little bit, not really defend them, but to put it into context,

00:13:39.340 the canceled flights were the result of the pilots and their union.

00:13:42.520 They walked off the job due to a pay dispute of some kind.

00:13:45.600 And indeed, if you get on the rabbit hole of violent Spirit Airlines videos,

00:13:49.220 you'll find that many of the incidents began when Spirit employees did something that's

00:13:54.160 objectively bad or caused a problem. And then the passengers, many of whom lack any form of

00:14:00.600 impulse control, go to war with each other. Now, for example, earlier I mentioned that Spirit

00:14:05.600 charged more money for carry-on bags, which had the side effect of speeding up their boarding

00:14:09.780 process. But as you might imagine, that policy had another side effect. It caused a lot of people to

00:14:15.000 get punched in the head and dragged around the floor of the terminal. Watch.

00:14:20.580 The two people arrested are from Detroit. They came here to Metro Sunday on their way to Atlanta

00:14:26.700 and ended up just going to jail. It was a dispute over the size of a carry-on bag and tempers

00:14:42.460 quickly erupted. Sunday at Metro, gate D-15, Spirit employees were trying to board the flight

00:14:59.780 to Atlanta. In this new video, you can see a passenger clearly punch an employee in the face,

00:15:06.940 But the employee does not retaliate as he declares a security breach and tries to close the doors.

00:15:19.260 That's when it turns into a melee, including a woman clearly throwing punches while holding a baby.

00:15:25.300 Jamil Murphy and Ray Monique Williams, both of Detroit, pleaded not guilty today to aggravated

00:15:36.180 assault, assault and battery and disturbing the peace. And again, one employee ended up going to

00:15:46.220 the hospital. The other is suffering some after effects, needing medical attention today.

00:15:50.840 ray monique williams that's a spirit passenger name all right

00:15:57.920 it's like you know we could play a game and i'll tell you the name of a passenger and you tell me

00:16:03.500 what airline you think they're flying ray monique williams what do you think uh now this is the

00:16:10.460 trade-off with any kind of novel carry-on policy on the one hand passengers will board the plane

00:16:15.960 faster. On the other hand, they might try to kill each other and the gate agents. It's impossible to

00:16:21.840 know if the trade-off is worth it. But then also, if they do kill each other, then there's fewer

00:16:26.000 people to board the plane. So that might actually speed up the process a little bit. And the other

00:16:31.740 things too, when chaos breaks out, passengers on spirit planes are sometimes very capable of

00:16:36.520 defending themselves. This is from an article in an NBC affiliate back in 2021. Quote,

00:16:40.820 A woman flying from Fort Lauderdale to Nashville allegedly attacked two flight attendants and was zip-tied by another passenger Saturday.

00:16:48.520 It happened on Spirit Airlines flight NK-222.

00:16:52.720 Airport police were called to a gate at Nashville International Airport around 7 p.m.

00:16:56.560 The crew told officers the woman, 42, had pulled the hair of one flight attendant and punched another.

00:17:02.420 At some point, another passenger tried to tie the woman's feet with zip ties.

00:17:06.640 Now, they don't specify where exactly the passenger acquired the zip ties. It's quite possible the flight attendant tossed them over and deputized the passenger during the emergency.

00:17:18.740 It's also possible the passenger had the zip ties in his carry-on bag, which he paid extra for because he's a veteran of many previous Spirit Airlines flights.

00:17:29.980 And it's one of those things that regular Spirit passengers like to have available at all times, just in case something like this happens.

00:17:39.280 Cell phone video shows chaos in a Spirit Airlines cabin. 0.58

00:17:43.260 A brawl breaks out between a group of women on a plane.

00:17:46.220 There's hair pulling, pushing, and it even looks like someone throws a punch.

00:17:50.320 Other passengers and a flight attendant can be seen trying to break this thing up.

00:17:54.180 witnesses say it started after spirit flight 141 landed apparently a few passengers were playing

00:18:02.500 their music very loudly passengers close to them got angry words were exchanged and then this

00:18:07.940 erupted other passengers who saw this video say it looked beyond frightening i'd be like really

00:18:14.320 afraid just because of all the you know with security and all the issues with that going on

00:18:18.460 right now i mean i would think that was bigger than just two girls fighting with music the plane 0.64

00:18:22.920 is probably the last place you'd want to do something like that. Witnesses say the fight 1.00

00:18:26.660 didn't last long. Once it was announced, police were called. Now, this may look like a generic

00:18:33.700 collection of Spirit Airlines videos that I'm putting together here, but there's there's

00:18:37.180 some artistry behind it, if I do say so myself. I'm trying to find one example of every common

00:18:44.160 motive for a brawl on one of these planes. First, we had flight cancellations and we had the carry

00:18:49.300 on bag policy. And now we have one of the most common justifications of all, which is loud

00:18:55.200 music. You'll find this motivation come up again and again if you ask any expert who specializes

00:19:00.760 in conflicts aboard Spirit Airlines jets. Of course, domestic violence is another common

00:19:06.260 motivation. So we will end on that. Watch. I'm trying to give you a pay. I'll break your

00:19:13.260 I don't know. I don't know.

00:19:15.000 I don't know. I don't know.

00:19:16.800 I don't know. I don't know.

00:19:18.840 Fisticuffs between a pair of

00:19:20.360 Spirit Airline passengers

00:19:21.740 making waves on social media.

00:19:23.740 The dust up went down at

00:19:25.540 Hartsfield Jackson Airport in

00:19:27.380 Atlanta, the women's

00:19:29.380 destination Detroit. That's 0.99

00:19:31.380 crazy. I think it's I think

00:19:34.380 is. It's sad, but I think

00:19:38.820 people are just. Angry, period.

00:19:41.380 on display. There was an in-flight fracas last week between two travelers headed to Atlanta

00:19:49.020 from Las Vegas. Earlier this year, two Spirit Airlines passengers came to blows after landing

00:19:56.520 at Detroit Metro Airport. Yeah, guys, this turned violent quickly last night here at

00:20:01.440 Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport. Take a look at this video we got from a man

00:20:05.720 who was there. So it's unclear exactly what sparked the outburst, but it appears to be

00:20:17.440 at the Spirit Gate for a flight to Philadelphia last night. You can see several women throwing

00:20:22.540 things at Spirit Airlines employees and then eventually going back to the counter and physically 1.00

00:20:27.520 attacking at least one of those employees. Again, no word on what sparked this, but we do know three

00:20:32.640 women were arrested in relation to this. 20-year-old Tymea Wright was charged with touch

00:20:37.960 or strike battery and petty theft. 22-year-old Dinesha Dixon is charged with touch or strike

00:20:42.560 battery. And 21-year-old Kira Ferguson is also charged with touch or strike battery.

00:20:49.160 Quick, Dinesha Dixon, what airline is she flying? Delta First Class. Probably not. That would be a

00:20:57.640 twist ending. Now, as you could tell from watching these videos, Spirit was operating on extremely

00:21:02.600 low margins, the whole reason for their existence was offering the cheapest flights possible.

00:21:07.980 And as long as you didn't check a bag or carry on a bag or print your boarding pass at the gate or

00:21:12.260 use the bathroom or want a nice seat or look at the flight attendant the wrong way,

00:21:20.260 then a Spirit ticket was actually a pretty good deal. And obviously, as much as I like to make

00:21:25.680 fun of Spirit, it's good for the market to have options like this. More choice is always better

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00:23:05.700 So what's so perverse about the downfall of Spirit

00:23:08.660 is that the Biden administration

00:23:09.980 made this exact same argument again and again.

00:23:13.900 They appeared on national television

00:23:15.480 to inform the American people

00:23:16.880 that Spirit Airlines provided valuable competition

00:23:20.440 in a very expensive market.

00:23:22.040 And then in the same breath,

00:23:23.720 the Biden administration filed a lawsuit

00:23:25.180 that ensured the total destruction of Spirit Airlines.

00:23:29.200 Specifically, the Biden administration claimed

00:23:30.700 that the proposed merger of JetBlue and Spirit,

00:23:33.040 which would have created the fifth largest airline

00:23:35.080 in the country, was illegal under antitrust laws.

00:23:39.320 Watch.

00:23:40.600 Today, the Department of Justice

00:23:42.420 filed a civil antitrust lawsuit

00:23:43.980 in the U.S. District Court

00:23:45.200 for the District of Massachusetts

00:23:46.520 to stop the merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines.

00:23:50.280 We are joined in that lawsuit

00:23:51.760 by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,

00:23:53.960 the state of New York,

00:23:55.180 and the District of Columbia.

00:23:57.240 I'm here with Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta

00:24:00.200 and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Doha Meckie.

00:24:04.500 Our complaint alleges that JetBlue's proposed $3.8 billion acquisition of Spirit violates

00:24:10.820 Section 7 of the Clayton Act.

00:24:13.680 We allege that if allowed to proceed, this merger will limit choices and drive up ticket

00:24:18.400 prices for passengers across the country.

00:24:21.960 And we further allege that the impact of this merger will be particularly harmful for travelers

00:24:27.180 who rely on what are known as ultra-low-cost carriers in order to fly.

00:24:33.180 Those include working and middle-class Americans who travel for personal as opposed to business

00:24:38.200 reasons and who must pay their own way.

00:24:41.880 By acquiring Spirit, JetBlue will eliminate the largest ultra-low-cost carrier in the

00:24:47.740 United States.

00:24:50.020 Yeah, I mean, we're using the term working class here pretty loosely, because I think in all those videos that we just showed you, I sincerely doubt that any of the people in those videos are working at all.

00:25:05.880 But anyway, that's speaking of working that that whole plan worked out, didn't it?

00:25:12.100 You know, Merrick Garland was once considered a serious judge.

00:25:15.300 He was supposed to be a Supreme Court justice.

00:25:16.680 and then he becomes attorney general and he immediately torches his reputation and he nearly

00:25:22.040 brings down the entire country with him. He oversees flagrant lawfare against Donald Trump,

00:25:27.040 the leading presidential candidate. He takes orders from the teachers unions and school boards

00:25:30.760 and claims that parents are a domestic terror threat. And now this. Now, what's funny about

00:25:37.420 the Clayton Act and antitrust law in general is that it's extremely subjective. You should pull

00:25:42.560 the text of the antitrust laws sometime and read them, they're very much open to interpretation.

00:25:47.820 For example, the text of the Clayton Act states that mergers are illegal when, quote,

00:25:52.580 the effect of such acquisition may be substantially to lessen competition or to tend to create a

00:25:58.580 monopoly. Well, what does that mean exactly? I mean, how do we determine when competition is

00:26:04.840 substantially lessened? And how do we determine if that trade-off is worth it under the

00:26:09.780 circumstances. Well, under antitrust law, there's something called the rule of reason. And this

00:26:14.940 doctrine essentially holds that judges need to use their logic and reason and come to a reasonable

00:26:21.240 conclusion. Any questions? If you think I'm exaggerating, look at what a federal court judge,

00:26:27.820 in this case, the federal court judge, a Reagan appointee in Massachusetts named William G. Young

00:26:32.460 wrote in his decision. The judge agreed with the Biden administration and blocked the merger.

00:26:37.860 and his opinion ended with this quote spirit is a small airline but there are those who love it

00:26:44.600 to those dedicated customers of spirit this one's for you

00:26:49.300 uh which first of all nobody loved spirit airlines there's no customers that like there's

00:26:57.620 not a single not a single person not a single customer not a single american has ever said

00:27:02.460 the phrase, I love Spirit Airlines. No, it's if you have to use it, you tolerate it, you put up

00:27:08.440 with it. But love, no. But more to the point, he clearly thought that by blocking the merger,

00:27:16.880 he would save the airline. This is a judge with no background in economics or markets. He has no

00:27:21.560 idea what he's doing. And there's no jury trial because the government was seeking an injunction.

00:27:26.580 So the government only needs to convince one judge. And in this case, this single judge agrees

00:27:32.140 with the Biden administration's bureaucrats who think that they can somehow compel Spirit Airlines

00:27:36.140 to remain in business. Here's what the New York Times reported about the planned merger when the

00:27:41.480 decision from the judge came down. This is from January 2024. Quote, lawyers for JetBlue argued

00:27:46.340 in court last month that the merger would allow it to better compete with the four large national

00:27:50.480 airlines, bringing prices down overall. The Biden Justice Department argued that a larger JetBlue

00:27:56.160 would act just like its bigger competitors while taking away a low-cost option for travelers.

00:28:01.540 Analysis presented at trial showed that when Spirit introduces a new route, fares, including those on JetBlue flights, come down.

00:28:08.400 Spirit's share price tumbled 47 percent by Tuesday afternoon, following the news, while JetBlue's share price closed up 5 percent.

00:28:15.080 Spirit's shares fell in part because the proposed merger would have been a lifeline to the company,

00:28:19.400 which had been struggling with operational issues and had not turned a profit since before the pandemic.

00:28:24.360 During the pandemic, many domestic airlines took on a mountain of debt

00:28:27.140 because they were trying to replace older aircraft with much newer ones.

00:28:32.220 So the judge and the Biden administration said they were saving the company,

00:28:37.140 and immediately the shares dropped by 50%.

00:28:40.300 This is why you should never, under any circumstance,

00:28:43.700 trust the government when it decides to manipulate free markets.

00:28:47.320 It always ends like this.

00:28:48.480 They simply don't know what they're doing.

00:28:50.740 None of them have any idea what they're doing.

00:28:51.760 not the judges, not the bureaucrats. And indeed, the inevitable result is that just a couple of

00:28:56.820 years later, everything ends in disaster. Now, to be clear about this, I'm not pro-monopoly or pro,

00:29:03.460 I mean, and I have no great love for any of these major airlines either. And there were some

00:29:10.800 arguments in favor of blocking the merger that were worth considering. So here's Democrat Senator

00:29:16.680 Chris Murphy of Connecticut making one of those arguments, even if he's generally an idiot, 1.00

00:29:22.540 this was, you know, reasonable enough. Listen. So this week, at the request of the Biden 1.00

00:29:29.460 administration, a federal judge blocked a big airline merger between two airlines you've heard

00:29:34.400 of, JetBlue and Spirit. I want to tell you why this is really important for consumers, but also

00:29:41.440 for the country. The Biden administration has made it a priority to try to break up these big

00:29:49.120 monopolies, to try to infuse more competition into our economy. You know this is a problem

00:29:55.260 because you've seen these massive companies become more and more powerful. And that's really

00:30:01.740 bad for workers. It's really bad for consumers. It just sort of guts the emotional soul of the

00:30:08.900 country when you've only got a couple companies that have this much power.

00:30:13.600 Well, that's happened in the airline industry.

00:30:15.740 There's only a handful of really big carriers.

00:30:18.920 Spirit is one of the few budget airlines out there, and wherever Spirit flies, there's

00:30:25.580 a pressure for prices to stay low.

00:30:28.320 The big airlines have to compete with the low-cost carrier.

00:30:32.440 If Spirit and JetBlue merged, then that downward pressure on price would be removed everywhere that Spirit flies.

00:30:42.720 JetBlue admitted that it was planning to increase fares by 25% or more after they merged with Spirit on the routes that Spirit flies.

00:30:54.320 Yes, we want Spirit to still be around so that they are another option and they keep prices down for everybody.

00:31:04.440 And so the best way to do that is to make sure that Spirit goes out of business so that they don't exist at all.

00:31:10.220 Better for them to go out of business than to merge with another airline, apparently.

00:31:14.900 Now, it's true that in court filings, JetBlue admitted that they intended to reduce the number of seats on their planes if they merged with Spirit,

00:31:21.360 which would naturally increase the cost of each ticket on some routes.

00:31:24.220 by as much as 40%.

00:31:25.520 Additionally, by one estimate for routes

00:31:27.260 where both Spirit and JetBlue were operating,

00:31:29.400 studies show that the fares tended to be around 20% lower

00:31:31.960 compared to only 8% lower where only JetBlue was operating.

00:31:35.540 And yes, if these are the only data points you consider,

00:31:37.820 then maybe it looks like the merger is a bad idea.

00:31:41.020 But the problem with this reasoning is obvious.

00:31:43.200 These savings are only worthwhile if they're sustainable.

00:31:46.720 If the savings are so substantial

00:31:48.660 that they'll destroy the company within two years,

00:31:50.620 and then after that, all prices will go up substantially

00:31:53.000 because there's less competition, then the savings definitely were not worth it.

00:31:58.480 Two years of slightly lower fares does not justify the permanent destruction of a major airline,

00:32:03.560 as well as the elimination of 17,000 jobs. JetBlue was offering a reasonable alternative,

00:32:10.360 slightly higher fares, still lower than the big four carriers in many cases, as well as the

00:32:14.420 continued existence of Spirit as a competitive airline nationwide. And the Biden administration

00:32:19.800 And this one judge decided otherwise.

00:32:23.140 They decided that it would substantially lessen competition under the Clayton Act to allow this merger.

00:32:29.200 So now we have a lot less competition.

00:32:32.480 I mean, it's almost as if the law needs to be repealed because it's completely useless.

00:32:37.240 The other reason this decision made no sense is that there's no monopoly in the industry at all.

00:32:43.060 And there's really nothing approaching a monopoly or a lack of competition.

00:32:46.700 Delta, American, Southwest, and United

00:32:48.540 each have roughly 17% of the market.

00:32:50.780 In other words, 80% of the market

00:32:52.580 is pretty much evenly split

00:32:54.280 between four very powerful companies

00:32:56.840 that compete with one another on most major routes.

00:33:00.520 That's a healthy market by any definition.

00:33:02.960 JetBlue only has around 5% of the market.

00:33:04.840 Spirit had around 4%.

00:33:06.180 The idea that JetBlue and Spirit

00:33:08.300 were going to create some kind of juggernaut

00:33:10.040 or an anti-consumer monopoly is simply not true. 0.95

00:33:13.040 I mean, it's ridiculous.

00:33:14.420 The reason Spirit was struggling

00:33:16.040 although no one in the Biden administration would ever admit it, was that the big carriers

00:33:20.140 began offering so-called basic economy seats. They weren't as cheap as Spirits, but they were

00:33:25.160 reasonably close. And that's all the airlines needed to do because the experience of flying

00:33:29.380 on a Spirit plane was so utterly awful in every conceivable way. So once the big four started

00:33:35.540 competing with Spirit by reducing leg room, charging more for bags, refusing to refund

00:33:39.760 tickets, and so on, it was game over. The large airlines adopted some of Spirit's tactics without

00:33:46.020 forcing customers to endure a very ghetto, unpleasant experience, or at least not as bad.

00:33:52.020 Essentially, the big carriers rendered Spirit redundant. Unless it merged with JetBlue and

00:33:57.180 made changes to how the planes were operating, it was going to die out. And yes, rising fuel costs

00:34:02.120 due to the war in Iran were the nail in the coffin. But Spirit was struggling financially for many

00:34:07.080 years before that, which is why JetBlue proposed the merger in the first place. Simply put,

00:34:10.860 spirits stopped being relevant. Everybody associated them with WorldStar instead of

00:34:17.460 being the only place to get affordable fares. And while that's a loss for the people who

00:34:22.580 depended on Spirit for cheap tickets, as well as Spirit's employees, as well as the people who

00:34:26.300 depended on Spirit for viral footage of airport bras, it's also an opportunity to create a new

00:34:33.140 business model for this particular segment of the market. Now, yes, it's possible that the

00:34:38.380 pendulum is going to swing away from affordable air travel towards a situation where air travel

00:34:43.320 is once again a privilege reserved for the very wealthy. But there is a possible middle ground

00:34:49.700 that we could try where budget-friendly options exist, but at the same time, basic standards of

00:34:57.560 decorum are also enforced. So imagine a spirit type of airline where everything is basically

00:35:05.640 the same, except you're not allowed to wear pajamas on the plane. And if you act like an

00:35:10.360 obnoxious ghetto retard, you get kicked off and banned for life. I mean, why doesn't that option 1.00

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00:37:58.320 It's not a crazy or unprecedented idea at all.

00:38:01.160 I mean, it's been tried in many other markets to great success.

00:38:04.500 One of the most notable examples is the Alamo Drafthouse, which became famous in large part

00:38:11.040 because they had a strict policy against using your phone in the theater.

00:38:15.940 It's a theater chain, and they were very strictly anti-phone.

00:38:20.400 They didn't care what your excuse was.

00:38:22.780 They didn't care if you had an emergency or if you were just using your phone's flashlight to find your seat or anything like that.

00:38:28.160 The rule was both simple and strict.

00:38:30.300 Use your phone in the theater, and you get thrown out.

00:38:33.620 Period.

00:38:34.380 You don't get a refund.

00:38:35.880 You're just escorted from the premises and banned.

00:38:39.460 And of course, they enforced other rules of decorum, too, like no talking,

00:38:43.920 no beating people up, no smoking weed, and so on. And these rules were the main competitive

00:38:50.560 advantage for the entire chain of theaters. They started as a single theater in a parking garage,

00:38:54.540 and now they're all over the country. They're one of the biggest theater chains in North America.

00:38:59.400 Yes, they had other ideas, too, like waiters who delivered food to your seat,

00:39:02.720 and they had unique programming that appealed to movie buffs. But the main defining feature,

00:39:06.660 The one that made them incredibly popular was the fact that they enforced rules of decorum.

00:39:12.180 And when customers violated those rules of decorum, the theater didn't apologize to them.

00:39:16.720 Instead, Alamo Draft House would post their voicemails and mock them on the Internet.

00:39:22.200 They make an example of anybody who complained.

00:39:24.620 Listen.

00:39:28.540 Yeah, I was wondering if you guys actually enjoy treating your customers like a piece of

00:39:33.080 because that's how I felt when I went to the Alamo Draft House, okay?

00:39:39.020 You know what? 0.97

00:39:40.480 I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to text in your little crappy-ass theater. 0.97

00:39:44.740 It was too dark in that place for me to find my seat, all right? 0.98

00:39:49.240 I was using my phone as a flashlight to get to my seat.

00:39:53.680 So excuse me for using my phone in USA, United States of America,

00:39:59.320 where you are free to text in a theater i was not aware that i couldn't text in your theater

00:40:07.360 all right i've texted in all the other theaters in austin and no one ever gave about what me i was

00:40:13.900 doing my phone all right and it was on silent it wasn't on loud it wasn't bothering anybody

00:40:20.300 you guys obviously were being me and i'm sure that's what you do you know to rip people off

00:40:27.920 you take my money, and then you throw me out.

00:40:30.500 You know, I will never be coming back to your Alamo draft house or whatever.

00:40:36.660 I'd rather go to a regular theater where people are actually polite. 0.99

00:40:41.260 And, you know, I'm going to tell everyone about how sh** you are. 0.99

00:40:45.560 And I'm pretty sure you guys are being a** on purpose. 0.99

00:40:48.760 So thanks for making me feel like a customer.

00:40:51.440 Thanks for taking my money out.

00:40:57.920 Now, that video was posted in 2011. It went viral immediately and racked up millions of views and it helped create positive word of mouth that allowed Alamo Draft House to expand like a weed at a time when movie theaters have been collapsing.

00:41:12.420 Because, of course, any normal person hears that voicemail and you think, yeah, that's exactly the kind of person I don't want. If this is a theater where that kind of person in the voicemail is not going to be, then that's where I want to be.

00:41:24.700 It turns out that if you create an environment that isn't loud and obnoxious and annoying, people will actually pay money to see a movie on a very large screen.

00:41:35.760 And it was a successful model for more than a decade.

00:41:39.580 But earlier this year, Alamo Draft House decided to change their policy seemingly out of nowhere.

00:41:43.980 This is from Variety.

00:41:45.620 Quote, Alamo Draft House, the dine-in theater chain that's popular among cinephiles, is trying to reduce distractions at the movies.

00:41:51.480 So the Texas-based cinema company is introducing a new mobile ordering service that will replace the traditional mode of pen and paper at the hands of servers.

00:42:00.160 Starting in February, Alamo Draft House locations will utilize a digital system that will let the guests browse the menu, order prior to and during the film, and pay directly from their phones.

00:42:09.900 The custom-built dark screen system is designed to minimize interruptions that currently take place as guests are placing orders and paying their checks while the movie is playing.

00:42:18.860 Despite the necessity of phone usage for any hungry audience members, Alamo Drafthouse maintains that its famous no-talking, no-texting policy will remain in place and enforceable by employees.

00:42:30.520 Now, the reaction to this announcement was universally negative.

00:42:34.080 They completely destroyed their brand virtually overnight, and that tells you how important these rules of decorum were.

00:42:40.000 For example, The Hobbit, Elijah Wood, posted the following message on X in response to the changes.

00:42:45.380 A move completely antithetical to the ethos of the Alamo and those who love the theatrical experience they provide.

00:42:52.080 This is a profound and upsetting mistake.

00:42:55.120 Meanwhile, a reporter for IndieWire, who used to be a fan of the Alamo Draft House, now describes their theater experience as absolute hell after watching a movie there recently.

00:43:04.020 Based on my limited experience with this new system, pivoting to QR codes will only allow the Draft House to move faster and more efficiently into going out of business forever.

00:43:11.780 We were instructed to use the QR system to police our fellow moviegoers, a dystopian premise made a million times worse by a truly noxious postscript about how Alamo appreciates the irony of using your phone to report people for using their phones.

00:43:26.140 Surprise, surprise, people were on their phones the entire effing movie, to the extent that ratting out any one of them would have been a waste of time.

00:43:34.540 Now imagine any other movie theater generating these kinds of reactions from their customers.

00:43:38.260 every other movie theater is seen as a fungible, disgusting, empty, hollowed-out husk of a former

00:43:45.040 era. But Alamo Draft House built an identity, and they did it by enforcing basic standards of

00:43:50.460 decency. And there's no reason why a new airline, or even an existing airline, can't do exactly the

00:43:57.300 same thing. Now, I'm not even talking about particularly high standards here. Just like

00:44:02.920 basic things. Here's just a few ideas for starters. No phone conversations, obviously.

00:44:10.360 I would start that in the terminal, like at the gate. You can't have loud phone conversations or

00:44:16.740 certainly be conversations on your speaker phone at the gate. If you do that, you can't board the

00:44:22.840 plane. No music whatsoever, if it's audible to those around you. At any point from when you get

00:44:29.380 to the gate to when your plane lands and you're off the plane. No audible sounds of any kind coming

00:44:34.640 from your phone at any point for any reason or you're banned for life. No morbidly obese people

00:44:41.080 allowed unless they buy out the entire row. No carry-on luggage at all. No requesting a wheelchair

00:44:47.380 unless your doctor personally calls the airline from the hospital and verifies that you're

00:44:51.380 disabled. No passengers who smell like weed or anything else. No passengers who aren't wearing 0.99

00:44:58.160 pants, no pajamas, no sweatpants, no passengers who wear those creepy little face masks, the ones

00:45:04.800 who still do that. All window shades have to remain open at all times. It's more of a personal

00:45:10.800 preference, but I'm going to put it on my list of rules because this is my list and I can do what

00:45:15.040 I want. And, you know, this might seem a little bit extreme, but how about a hundred dollar charge

00:45:19.660 to use the bathroom, to give people an incentive to use the bathroom on the ground and to minimize

00:45:24.040 the number of times people get up and force you to move.

00:45:27.740 And if they don't pay the fine

00:45:28.960 and they have an accident in their seat,

00:45:30.280 then they go to federal prison.

00:45:32.500 Maybe you'll enforce that for flights under two hours.

00:45:37.000 Like be an adult and use the bathroom ahead of time.

00:45:40.180 You should be able to use the bathroom ahead of time

00:45:42.840 and not have to use the bathroom for two hours.

00:45:44.460 You should be able to do that.

00:45:47.920 So these are just off the top of my head.

00:45:49.520 It's all basic stuff.

00:45:50.260 And yet, as far as I know, no airline has really implemented any of these rules, even the ones that are slightly more reasonable.

00:45:59.140 A few of them might be slightly on the extreme side, but for the most part, these are common sense ideas.

00:46:03.780 Admittedly, I didn't go to business school, so I'm not up on the lingo, but that's what I call a market opportunity.

00:46:10.660 It's time for some airline to jump on it now that we're eulogizing spirit airlines.

00:46:16.660 And in that spirit, one last time, I want to play some of their greatest hits.

00:46:20.160 as a send-off to one of the worst airlines to ever exist,

00:46:23.900 but also an airline that, you know,

00:46:27.500 when compared to everybody else, wasn't actually that bad.

00:46:50.160 Yes, you are.

00:47:06.960 Well, it's very emotional.

00:47:09.760 It's hard to watch those bags getting chucked

00:47:12.240 and their contents being completely destroyed

00:47:14.360 without getting the slightest tear in your eye of nostalgia.

00:47:20.160 Think of all the content. Think of all the content we're missing out on.

00:47:23.680 For someone in my business, that's the hardest part, is losing all the content.

00:47:28.700 What happened to Spirit Airlines was preventable on many levels.

00:47:31.520 The Biden administration interfered with the market and barred them from merging with JetBlue.

00:47:34.840 The people running the company didn't crack down on the degenerate passengers and ticket agents who destroyed the brand.

00:47:40.940 They also admitted that they were the taxi cabs of the sky.

00:47:44.040 And as a result, thousands of people are out of a job.

00:47:47.200 And even if they get a new job at another carrier, they have to start at the very bottom

00:47:50.800 in terms of seniority.

00:47:53.340 And this was an avoidable disaster.

00:47:55.380 There's no question about it.

00:47:57.140 In fact, it was so avoidable and so telegraphed that it should herald the beginning of a new

00:48:02.180 era in aviation, a bold new world in which budget airline does not have to be synonymous

00:48:08.600 with low class and gross.

00:48:11.740 That's what it means now.

00:48:13.780 It doesn't have to be that way.

00:48:17.200 So, yes, Spirit Airlines may have generated near infinite content for the WorldStar community, but Spirit, through its failure and through its gate agents telling their colleagues to put their mouths on unmentionable things, it also may have paved the way for a better future.

00:48:34.980 And for that, and that alone, we should be grateful.

00:48:40.680 So, Godspeed, Spirit Wings.

00:48:42.820 You were too trashy for this world, but more than any other airline, you showed us what's possible

00:48:48.900 That will do it for the show today. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow. Have a great day. Godspeed 0.88

00:49:03.080 I do believe that if people have committed treason against the United States of America, their statues should not be in the Capitol

00:49:11.880 History is written by the victors, and since the 1960s we've been told, mostly by people

00:49:16.800 whose ancestors didn't even live here during the war, that the South committed treason.

00:49:22.380 But if the Confederates were traitors, then why was Jefferson Davis never put on trial

00:49:28.760 for treason?

00:49:29.760 What were Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson afraid of?

00:49:34.320 Did they know something they're not allowed to say today?

00:49:39.080 It's time for the truth.

00:49:40.080 So here it is.

00:49:41.080 Robert E. Lee was a military genius

00:49:43.000 and a man of immense honor.

00:49:44.640 He was beloved by Americans from the North and South

00:49:47.180 for a century after the war.

00:49:49.500 This is the real history of the Civil War.

The Matt Walsh Show - May 04, 2026

Ep. 1773 - Idiot Politicians Killed Spirit Airlines. Here’s Why That’s Bad News For You.

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