Crowdfunding Effort for Bankrupt Spirit Airlines Reaches $337 Million in Pledges

Hunter Peterson, a 32-year-old voice actor and content creator, posted on social media on May 2, 2026, the day Spirit Airlines closed, proposing that a fifth of Americans each contribute $45 to buy the bankrupt carrier. Peterson has since rallied $337 million in pledges from more than 370,000 verified people, according to his website. He did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

Peterson proposed running the revived airline like the Green Bay Packers, which has more than 5 million shares split among more than 530,000 owners. 0 collective succeeds, decisions on routes, leadership and strategic direction would be made by members. 0 website has crashed multiple times due to high traffic.

"I pledged. Why not? " Abigail Hartman, a radiologic technologist from Indiana, stated. Hartman added in a social media video, "If this works, doesn’t that prove we can do anything? " Spirit Airlines had been bleeding money for years according to its 2025 bankruptcy filings.

The carrier had two failed merger attempts, with Frontier in 2022 and with JetBlue in 2024. It filed for bankruptcy twice, in 2024 and 2025. 1 billion in debt.

Rising oil prices due to the war with Iran occurred in the period leading to the shutdown. Marshall Huebner, an attorney for Spirit, spoke during a last-minute bankruptcy hearing on Tuesday and stated that the oil price megaspike would have drained hundreds of millions of dollars of the airline’s liquidity. " Delta, American, United and Southwest generated $200 billion in revenue in 2024.

Even though all four airlines were profitable that year, they lost money flying passengers. 0 would need more than ticket sales alone to be profitable. Peterson stated on social media that he is actively consulting lawyers as he learns the regulatory limits to his idea.

On Monday, he said one firm specializing in aviation mergers and acquisitions told him his plan was doable. On Friday, Peterson said he secured a legal fund to put together a bid for Spirit Airlines. He has heard from angel investors who would help through a legal fund and invited Mark Cuban to contact him.

Peterson has the backing of Spirit’s 5,500-member flight attendant union. An auction for some of Spirit’s assets is scheduled in days. Charles Elson, a retired professor of finance at the University of Delaware, stated that an airline is a very complicated financial enterprise with many players including lenders, planes, governmental entities, liens on aircraft, and union contracts.

Elson stated that he would be shocked if the crowdfunding idea ever became a reality and compared it to going to Mars. , a Columbia University law professor, stated that registering an airline as a publicly traded entity with the SEC is a time-consuming and expensive process. SEC crowdfunding exemptions max out at $5 million per year.

Coffee stated that a private placement offering allows an unlimited amount of money to be raised within a year but is limited to individuals with a net worth of at least $1 million. Peterson traveled with Spirit for 24 hours straight for a YouTube video last year. "There’s no guarantee that any of this is going to work.

We’re giving it our very best shot. 0," Peterson stated. @NBCNews reported that Peterson’s quest to buy the airline began in earnest after its final closure following years of financial strain and unsuccessful attempts at rescue.