A TikTok video posted hours after Spirit Airlines stopped flying turned into a crowdfunding campaign with hundreds of millions in pledges behind it.
Let’s Buy Spirit asks strangers to promise money toward a community-owned carrier. No cash has changed hands yet.
The counter climbed from $2.3 million to more than $335 million in nine days. Aviation analysts still put the odds of a revival close to zero.
What Is the Let’s Buy Spirit Campaign?
Hunter Peterson, a Los Angeles voice actor who posts as Hi There Hunter, did the arithmetic out loud on TikTok. Take 250 million American adults, get 20% of them to chip in the price of an average Spirit fare, roughly $30 to $40, and the money is there.
He called it a genius idea: nationalise the airline, hand it to the people, build a new carrier from what is left.
Within hours he registered letsbuyspiritair.com. The site logs pledges toward a proposed ownership stake. It takes no card details and creates no obligation. Minimum pledge is $45, about a one-way ticket. Each member would get one vote, with profits shared in proportion to the amount pledged.
The campaign points at the Green Bay Packers and WinCo Foods as models. Its stated target is $1.75 billion.
Why Spirit Airlines Shut Down in May 2026
Spirit ceased operations overnight on 2 May 2026, grounding roughly 200 Airbus A320-family jets and telling passengers to stay away from airports.
The collapse followed years of losses, repeated bankruptcy filings, and two failed merger attempts involving JetBlue and Frontier. Thin margins left no cushion when jet fuel prices spiked.
A $500 million federal rescue package fell through, which pushed the wind-down forward immediately. President and chief executive Dave Davis said the fuel shock left the company no alternative to an orderly closure.
Let’s Buy Spirit Pledge Totals by the Numbers
Every figure below is self-reported by the campaign and non-binding. Peterson said he stepped out for dinner on the first Saturday and returned to find $2.3 million on the counter from 4,817 people, an average of $481 each.
Pledges Recorded Since Launch
Backer counts rose alongside the money: about 40,000 by 3 May, roughly 124,700 by 4 May, and more than 156,000 by 5 May. The typical pledge sat near $667 in early counts. Peterson’s opening clip passed 4.6 million views inside a weekend and later cleared 7 million.
Set against the $1.75 billion goal, the pledged total still falls well short.
Progress Toward the $1.75 Billion Target
Who Is Hunter Peterson Behind Let’s Buy Spirit?
Peterson had form with the airline before any of this. In 2025 he spent 24 straight hours aboard Spirit aircraft to see how the budget model worked from the inside, touching down at five of its busiest airports. The resulting YouTube film has about 93,000 views.
He has been candid that the campaign outgrew him. It started as a joke, he said in a follow-up clip, and was running out of control in the best possible way.
On 3 May he posted a want list: developers to harden the pledge page, PR people to field press calls, aviation lawyers, and airline executives who know things outsiders do not. He also ruled out television appearances until his legal team had briefed him, keeping updates to social feeds only. Learners tracking a story like this one often find the vocabulary shift easier with daily practice apps that need no tutor.
Why the Let’s Buy Spirit Website Kept Crashing
Traffic broke the site more than once. By 4 May a notice explained that pledges were paused while the backend was rebuilt.
The attention also drew imitators. Copycat pages appeared quickly enough that Peterson named letsbuyspirit.com and letsbuyspiritair.com as the only official addresses, adding that any Spirit ownership page asking for payment details is a scam.
Search interest matched the surge. Queries for the campaign spiked more than 1,000% inside a single day, and the Spirit Airlines 2.0 Instagram account crossed 163,000 followers while the main site was down.
Can Let’s Buy Spirit Actually Buy Spirit Airlines?
Robert W. Mann Jr., who runs the independent consultancy R.W. Mann and Co. and once held an airline executive post, is blunt about it. Had the business held a workable future, someone would have rescued it already.
Drew Powers of Powers Financial Group put the scale problem plainly: even at $100 million, the pledges cover something like 3% to 5% of what Spirit’s creditors would need to entertain an offer. And nobody has actually paid.
There is also a target problem. The campaign frames private equity as the villain, but no private equity firm was circling Spirit. Frontier tried to merge twice and walked away. The price creditors needed was one nobody would meet. A restart would still require billions in capital, fresh FAA certification, and years of operational work. Numbers-heavy news like this is useful practice material, and a quick reading accuracy check shows whether the detail is landing.
What Happens to Spirit Airlines Next
Spirit is being liquidated. A court will divide the assets among creditors, and the pieces will scatter rather than reassemble.
Mann expects the jets to fly again in other liveries. Crew will turn up wearing different badges. Competitors will absorb the landing slots, along with the use-them-or-lose-them conditions attached. Ground equipment and gates will be reused under new signage.
What he does not expect is the name coming back. The campaign looks set to remain what it has been since the first video: a very large, very public expression of annoyance at the loss of cheap seats. For anyone reading it as English practice, free language tools and immersion ideas you can run at home turn business headlines into study material, much as app usage data shows how many learners already study this way.
FAQs
What is the Let’s Buy Spirit campaign?
A crowdfunding push started by TikTok creator Hunter Peterson after Spirit Airlines shut down on 2 May 2026. Supporters record non-binding pledges toward a community-owned carrier. No money is collected at this stage.
How much has Let’s Buy Spirit raised so far?
Nothing in cash. Pledges passed $335 million by 9 May 2026, up from $2.3 million on 3 May. The stated target is $1.75 billion. All figures are self-reported.
Is letsbuyspiritair.com a legitimate website?
Peterson has named letsbuyspirit.com and letsbuyspiritair.com as the only official pages. Neither requests card details. Any Spirit ownership site asking for payment information is a copycat, according to his posts.
Why did Spirit Airlines stop flying?
Spirit ended operations on 2 May 2026 after years of losses, two failed mergers, repeated bankruptcy filings and a jet fuel price spike. A $500 million federal rescue package fell through.
Can Spirit Airlines come back as an airline?
Analysts say no. The company is being liquidated and its assets sold to settle debts. Rivals are expected to absorb the aircraft, slots and staff rather than the Spirit brand.
