Spirit Airlines is reportedly planning to shut down after it failed to receive funds from the federal government to remain in operation. 

People familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that the budget airline wasn’t able to get enough support between bondholders and the government to get enough funding to remain operating. The airline had been seeking $500 million from the government.

Trump had signaled support for action earlier in April, telling reporters, “we’re looking at helping them, 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 aircraft, 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. I like having a lot of airlines so it’s competitive.”

This is a breaking story.