May 4, 2026 • 36 mins
In Hour 1 of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, the hosts deliver an in-depth, opinion-driven breakdown of the collapse of Spirit Airlines, framing it as a major example of government overreach, failed antitrust policy, and disruption in the U.S. airline industry. This opening hour focuses heavily on the blocked JetBlue–Spirit merger, valued in the billions, which Clay and Buck argue would have strengthened competition against the dominant “big four” airlines—American, Delta, United, and Southwest. Instead, they contend that opposition from Democratic leaders and federal regulators prevented the deal, ultimately leading to Spirit Airlines’ bankruptcy, liquidation, and the loss of thousands of jobs.
The conversation emphasizes the real-world economic consequences of the airline’s collapse, including employee layoffs, shareholder losses, and reduced consumer choice in the commercial aviation market. The hosts highlight how investors and workers were directly impacted, including a listener whose spouse lost nearly $1 million in stock value following the failed merger. Clay and Buck repeatedly stress what they characterize as a broader pattern of government interference harming free-market outcomes, arguing that the regulatory process misjudged how consolidation could have actually improved competition and stabilized ticket prices.
Beyond the policy debate, Hour 1 expands into a larger critique of the modern airline experience, with discussion of rising ticket costs, shrinking seat sizes, added fees, and worsening service quality. The hosts suggest that a lack of competition and heavy regulation have contributed to a frustrating travel environment for consumers, where airlines increasingly monetize discomfort through baggage fees, seat selection charges, and tiered boarding systems. They argue that the industry has shifted toward a model where passengers pay to avoid inconvenience rather than receive better service.
The show also explores structural challenges in the airline business, including high barriers to entry and massive capital requirements that limit new competitors from emerging. Clay and Buck explain how these dynamics reinforce the market dominance of existing carriers, especially in the wake of Spirit’s collapse, where remaining airlines are positioned to acquire assets like planes and gate access at discounted prices.
In the latter part of Hour 1, the discussion turns toward the future of transportation, with a focus on emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles, Tesla self-driving systems, and alternative travel innovations. The hosts speculate that improvements in autonomous driving could significantly disrupt short-haul air travel, as consumers may increasingly choose long-distance car travel over flying due to reliability, comfort, and convenience advantages.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everybody. Monday edition of The Clay and Buck Show
begins right now. Thanks for being here with us. We
love hanging out with all of you. A lot of
news going on. Sorry if you got stranded because your
Spirit Airlines flight was canceled forever. It was not a
(00:21):
one time thing, it was all of them canceled. We're
going to talk about this in a minute. Democrats, with
Spirit Airlines burning down the village in order to save it,
as they say, figured you know what the best thing
to do would be. We can save Spirit Airlines the
Democrat way, which means just kill the whole thing, just
take the scalp. Elizabeth Warren deciding to step in on
(00:45):
the war path and make sure that Spirit Airlines is
no more. So the pow wow that she had to
try and make things better was a failure. That is
not a surprise. She broke the treaty and now Spirit
Airlines is no more. We will talk, by the way,
if you are a Spirit Airlines employee, we would very
(01:07):
much like to hear from you on this matter, and
we'll walk you through this. Because the Democrats, in their
usual just mendacity. I'll give that a word of the day. Mendacity.
That's a fun one. They are saying that this is
a Trump thing. It's because of the high gas prices. Yeah,
the entire airline collapsed because of a temporary uptick in
(01:31):
gas price. Give me a break. This was years in
the making, and Democrats weighed in on it, and they,
no surprise, made everything worse. And now the body of
Spirit Airlines sits at their feet, if you will, This
is all on them. So, mister Clay, any surprises here
(01:53):
at all about how this went down. We got iron stuff.
We got other things to talk about. Huge fraud in Ohio.
Will get to that. But Spirit Airlines. You're a Southwest guy,
so at least this doesn't affect your itinerary.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Fired up about this and we've talked about it on
the program a bunch of times over the years, and
I do think this is one where when people in
business screw up, you lose jobs and companies go bankrupt.
Right here, the government screwed up. And this is where
(02:26):
if you're a Spirit Airlines employee, I would actually like
to hear from you. There's fifteen thousand some odd people
who lost their jobs.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Buck. Here is what happened.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Because I do think this data matters, and this storyline matters,
and this narrative matters. And this is when I get
really angry. When government screws up, real people suffer. And
this is a perfect example of government screwing up. So
Spirit Airlines was in peril as a business and they
(02:56):
sold the company. They managed to find a company that
wanted to buy them. Jet Blue offered three point eight
billion dollars for Spirit Airlines. So if you owned stock
in Spirit Airlines, you were gonna be in a great spot.
You were gonna be in a position where where everybody
was able to basically get onto a new company, Jet Blue.
(03:21):
And we were gonna be in a position where the
four biggest airlines out there actually had competition. So if
you fly as I do, I'm on Southwest Airlines everywhere, Buck,
if you fly Southwest Airlines out of Nashville, there's almost
one hundred percent chance that you're gonna see me somewhere.
I really like Southwest Airlines, Buck, I have two point
(03:42):
five million Southwest Airlines points. That has to put me
in like the point one percent of most frequent Southwest
Airlines flyers.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I don't even know.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I don't even I wouldn't have to buy a ticket
for the rest of my life. I could probably just
use my points. But I love Southwest. It's the biggest
airline in Nashville. They do a good job of getting
me safely all over the place. Yes, it's not fancy,
I get it, but that's the reality.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
All right.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Then you've got America, and then you've got United, you
got Delta. They need a fifth competitor to help keep
down prices for a lot of different airports.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Across the country.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So Needing heft Jet Blue said we're gonna buy Spirit
Airlines for three point.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Eight billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And then I want to play some of these cuts
because I think this is so significant. Then Mayor Pete,
who was the Transportation Secretary at at the time, came
out and said, we're gonna oppose this merger the Biden
doj which got everything wrong. Mayor Pete, who was totally
unqualified to ever be in the cabinet and have this job.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
This is March seventh, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Mayor Pete announcing Pete Buddhajeedge announcing Transportation Secretary.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
We're opposed to this cut too.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Our department, the Department of Transportation has generally not gotten
involved in these merger cases, but that's changing today. It
is so important to make sure that passengers have choices,
that they have access to low fares, that they have
access to competition, and yet we've seen less and less
and less of that competition over the years. We are
(05:22):
taking a step that, again is unusual in terms of
recent years, but we think is the right thing to do,
supporting the DOJ's lawsuit and independently using our own authorities,
which are a little bit different from the DOJ, starting
our own investigation, and taking other actions.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
All right, I want to play another one because what
he was doing was echoed by Senator Elizabeth Warren by
so many other Democrats out there saying, oh, this is
anti competitive, this is going to make airline fares more expensive.
We can't allow this. Here is another flashback. This is
September twenty, twenty twenty three, on why Biden DOJ was
(06:01):
preventing this merger Cut three.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
You're saying that we have four major carriers that represent
eighty percent of their traffic and adding another one would
stop competition.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
By definition, a merger doesn't add a company at removes.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
By definition, a merger also gives for a competition that
they don't have presently of eighty percent.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
So our role is to make sure that there is
more competition, not less, and we will only act to
prevent a merger if there is a determination that a
merger would harm competition.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Okay, So let me ask so in other words, we
have four major airlines represent eighty percent of the traffic.
You're saying another competition would be what would not be competition?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
My point is taking two airlines and turning them into
one could mean less competition.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Okay, Buck, wrong on everything. I do want to give
credit there. Let me make sure that is Burgess Owens questioning.
He is a representative from Utah Republican congressman really grilling
him back in September twenty twenty three pointing out the
absurdity of this. So Buck, they sue under anti trust law.
(07:12):
A judge in Massachusetts I believe his last name was Walker.
Here's all of this, says, I agree with the Biden government,
this will be anti competitive, disallows the merger. Within a
few months, Spirit enters bankruptcy for the first time. Now
they have entered bankruptcy for the second time, and Buck
do you know what the end result here, I'm not
(07:33):
even gonna get into the fifteen thousand lost jobs, all
the people out there who are going to have less
opportunity to fly Spirit Airlines because the airline no longer exists.
Everybody is going to now buy Spirits assets for pennies
on the dollar, and the big four airlines are going
to have even more power because they're gonna get the gates,
(07:54):
They're gonna get the airplanes for pennies on the dollar.
And the end result is going to be consumed lose.
So the government got everything wrong here and everybody loses,
and I'm pretty pissed off about it.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Frankly well, Elizabeth Warren a couple of years ago, she
wrote this is on X I've worn for months that
a jet blew Spirit Airlines merger would have led to
fewer flights and higher fares. US Department of Transportation was
(08:28):
right to stand up for consumers and fight against runaway
airline consolidation. This is a Biden win for flyers.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
That is actual tweet from That is an actual tweet
from Elizabeth Warren. She has taken Spirit Airlines and driven
into the side of a mountain. It is no more.
It is now the plane from Indiana Jones, the Temple
of Doom that had no pilots and was just going down.
She was proud of herself and proud of the Biden
administration in doing so.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
This is why I am so angry too. Is when
you screw up in government, nothing happens. You get reelected
the people that you screw over. There are no consequences
typically for you. When you screw up in business, your
company goes bankrupt, the CEO gets fired. When you screw
(09:21):
up in your jobs, you get fired. Their real consequences,
they weren't just wrong, Buck, They were the exact opposite
of right. Like sometimes you're wrong and you're like, oh,
this is a little gradation of failure. This is they
did the exact opposite. All of these airline people were
in favor of this merger, and now the American consumer loses,
(09:44):
all of the shareholders lose, and probably even the debt
holders aren't going to be made one hundred percent full
fully compensated.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Here. Yeah, the Biden administration was like a doctor running
into the ICU and saying, take that patient off that
you know, IV drip right away, and the patient died.
And now They're like, look what those other doctors did. No, No,
this is what Biden's team did. They took the credit
(10:12):
for it, then they take the blame for it now.
Although I'll just note, Clay, there's something even more galling.
It's we talk and we're gonna be talking more about
it because of the Ohio big story in the Daily Wire,
Luke Rosiak, we'll talk about it. The fraud. I mean
billions and billions and billions of dollars and smallies are involved.
Once again. Interesting. It's one thing when government is wasteful
(10:33):
in an aptin stupid, now, that's bad enough. But when
government decides, like a big, lumbering, blind giant to crush
private industry because it's so dumb and feels like it,
that's particularly annoying. Right, That goes beyond even what we
see with government waste. This is now the government wasting
(10:55):
a company that could be doing just fine. Yes, yes,
again it is.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I think that what this is indicative of is a
lot of people just don't understand on the Democrat Party.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Basic business.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
If you've never made a payroll, if you've never founded
a business, and I'm not talking about a big, huge business,
I'm just talking about have you ever run a small
business that you hope to grow into a medium sized business.
I've done it. A lot of you out there listening
have done it. Buck and Eye Hecker doing it right
now with Crockett Coffee. There's all sorts of challenges associated
(11:33):
with running businesses, and when people who have no conception
of business come and stop you from being able to
do the best thing for your business, this is just.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And by the way, this judge across.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
The board, all of the Democrat Party, all of the
Biden DOJ, and the judge who was assigned this case,
they all got it completely wrong. And what happens to them.
Elizabeth Warren has a multimillion dollar pension. Everybody who worked
in the Biden DOJ is employed making millions of dollars.
The judge who got this one hundred percent wrong has
(12:10):
lifetime tenure. Nothing happens to him. The people who lose
are the Spirit Airlines employees and the shareholders of Spirit
Airlines who put their money into this company and were
not allowed to profit because Jet Blue couldn't buy their assets.
And by the way, jet Blue probably is going to
(12:32):
end up losing two because jet Blue is in dire straits,
and one thing they needed to do to be able
to compete with the big four airlines they.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Needed to have a half buck.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
They needed to have more airlines, more offerings, better opportunities
for consumers. And now what we're gonna see, I'm just
telling you is everybody out there on pennies on the
dollar is going to buy the spirit assets and the
strength of the four biggest airlines is going to grow.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Something is really up here because the airlines, like the
healthcare industry, well, I know that's not even really fair,
because there are healthcare breakthroughs, there are new exciting drugs,
you know, talking about GLPS recently like that. Somehow the
airline industry just gets worse all the time. Yeah, the
seats get smaller, the service gets worse, the tickets get
more expensive. So we know it has to be the
(13:24):
government doing stupid things because otherwise the market would short
this out over time. There has to So I'm very
curious if you really know, you know, if you're a
former or current airline execut or, you can explain why
is it that my airline attendants are more surly than ever,
my seat is more uncomfortable than ever, and I'm paying
more than ever for basically all of these airlines. Yeah, leuess,
(13:47):
that's what it feels like. Maybe not more than ever,
but certainly more than I have in the last ten
or fifteen years. I think it's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
And this would go to my general thesis that I
think a lot of you share the more government gets
involved in business, the worse the business does. And so
I think a lot of you.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Are frust If you're a Somali running a home healthcare business, buddy,
then you're doing great because you just get checks for
nothing millions of dollars. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
But I mean, I mean, it really is such an
interesting test. I mean, what does the government do that
is way better than private industry would be. I mean,
I'm not talking about provide the structure like to allow
capitalist structure to exist. The big picture of government, I'm
talking about government getting involved in healthcare. Do any of
you feel like healthcare as well run in the United States?
(14:32):
It's infuriating. Government getting involved in what airline should exist.
It's infuriating, and butuck, the real thing is we go
to break here airlines. The fixed cost of getting competitive
in an airline is so huge that it's hard the
moat that protects the existing businesses. You do know how
many billions of dollars you would have to raise to
(14:52):
decide that you want to get into airline competition.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I don't want to sound like a baby, but like,
can Elon just buy an airline and fix all that? Please? Elon,
if you're out there, you can do these Apparently no
one else can figure this out. You can do the
space travel thing. I'm sure you can get a flight
from Columbus to San Antonio going.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
I bet what Elon would do, honestly, Buck, I bet
he would just design brand new airports, and I bet
he would make the airport only exist for his airlines.
I mean, it would actually be fun if you went
back and you could redesign air travel. What would you
do differently? But we'll take some of your calls in
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Speaker 6 (16:46):
Common sense never sounded so good, Clay and bucking the airways.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Welcome back in Clay, Travis bus Sexton show a lot.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Of different people.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
This is a great call, and by great I mean
that it is awful that it happened, but this is
the real consequences. Rick, I want you to tell us,
because we've got a quick turn here. You said your
wife was a Spirit employee. How much stock in Spirit
did she have?
Speaker 7 (17:14):
Oh, just shure, I have a million, just.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Short of a million dollars in Spirit stock. So if
the merger had gone through, your wife would have gotten
as a employee and shareholder a million dollars. Instead, Elizabeth
Warren blocked it and she lost all of.
Speaker 7 (17:32):
That, exactly and exactly. And I'm a free market guy,
but honestly, the things that happened to Spirit had nothing
to do with their management or the flights. They have
the best safety rating and honestly they're they're in twenty nineteen,
they were the most profitable airline in the business.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Eric, Sorry, Rick, can you stick with us? Sorry, because
I want this story. I want you to share more
of your story. I think it's a good one. We've
got a quick turn here, but I want to make
sure Rick stays with us, because this is the real
consequence of poor management from a government perspective, and I
want that story. We'll come back to Rick, but in
the meantime, I want to tell you if you are
(18:11):
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(18:54):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton show. Okay, I
want to go back to Rick in Aaro Beach, Florida.
And this is why I think these stories are so
important for you to hear so. Rick and you said
your wife's Spirit employee. She had nearly a million dollars
in Spirit stock. If Spirit had been purchased by Jet Blue,
(19:16):
as the two companies in a free market had agreed to,
she would have received nearly a million dollars as part
of that merger. She would have then been part of
a company that was bigger, better, and theoretically more equipped
to be able to compete with the big carriers. And Rick, instead,
(19:36):
she along with every other Spirit shareholder, got wiped out
because of the Biden Department of Justice and the judge
who agreed with them.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
And then Spirit goes bankrupt.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
And for people who don't know this, when you go bankrupt,
all of the equity in the company vanishes. So Rick,
I want to bring you back in. How angry did
that make you?
Speaker 7 (19:57):
Well, obviously that's not a good thing. But there is
more to the story than just that. There's a series
of other things. Don't leave out Pratt and Whitney, who
is the engine manufacturer that that had a rework on
their engines which took a year each to do, and
that was on over one hundred planes. Pratt and Whitney
is a huge company. They're bigger than Delta, you know,
(20:18):
and they, because of Spirit's need for revenue, you know,
they gave up a full trimount, you know, to to
to just pacify them. You got a lot of people
that that that are the issues, and it really was
not the Spirit people, they did a great job.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
In Some people out there are like, oh, well the government,
the government actually got involved in a free market transaction
and made it worse.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
That's what I think a lot of people are missing here.
Speaker 7 (20:46):
Absolutely. And the government, well, the government wrecked the merger
which would have kept both Jet Blue and Spirit from
having financial problems. And obviously the fuel issues hurting Jet
Blue right now, just as it did on Spirit. But
my feeling and my honestly when the when the government
screwed up by getting involved, and then I got to
(21:06):
be honest with you, I think the government screwed up
by not getting involved enough on this last deal. But
by then the equity was gone and there was it
really didn't make financial sense. But I wish I wish
the Trump administration had gotten involved even more. And I
know Donald Trump did everything he could, but you know
it just when the government screws you up, then it
(21:27):
should have helped. And honestly, everybody knows that. Of course,
the the Iran issue is not a binary you know,
whether you're for it or against it. It just it
did increase Jeff Thuow. It went from two and a
quarter a gallon to two forty eight or four eighty
eight a gallon so damn near Dalut doubled, so you
know it did cause a huge impact to Spirit Airlines.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
You know was all the other well, thank you, thank
you for that. I appreciate, appreciate all the insights. So
Clay a few things about the reality of airline travel,
and I feel like everyone is aware of but you
should really think they they have decided that there's like
a calculated misery index they're working with. Now this is real,
meaning they they they bring in low base fares for
(22:13):
people and then they just call then they just price
out additional layers of do you want frustration or not?
Like do you want to be able to bring bags
on or not? Do you want to be able to
choose your seat or not? Do you want to wait
till the end of the boarding process or the beginning?
All these different things, So you're paying to avoid pain
(22:34):
and pain are the indicators or you know, pain are
the things that they are leveraging to try to squeeze more.
It's not things are getting better, it's we're gonna you know,
it's airlines won a few industries where making things worse
for you or not is really what it's all about.
You're not paying for goodness. You're not paying for goodness.
You're paying to avoid badness if you will. And that's
(22:57):
why people get so frustrated. It's also why when they're
masking every up on the planes and everything, the hair
trigger tempers were just going off and people were punching everybody.
And it wasn't just on Spirit airlines that was happening,
I might add, it was happening a lot of airlines.
And they've made It's true, it's not ours. They've made
seats smaller, they're squeezing more, they're squeezing work. We don't
have enough competition. This has to get better. It's Americans
(23:22):
should have better airline op And now they are very
safe to point that, to say this, and that's very nice.
Twenty years ago, thirty years ago, planes were not as
safe as they are now. So the safety thing we've
basically gotten down. You know, there you go, but it's safe,
but men, is it uncomfortable? Is it frustrating? And they
also operate at skeleton crews. How many times have you
(23:44):
had been on a plane that has landed and you
had that thought, you go, wow, this is easy. No,
line at TSA. I'm just cooling. Then they go, yeah,
we're gonna wait thirty minutes for someone to come and
let you in at the gate. Now that's one of
the best. That's just pure squeezing profit out at your expense,
that's all that is. Yes, So I just think this
(24:07):
is so important.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
We got a bunch of guys out there, like Robert
in Newport News, Virginia. This is important because you want
to talk about free markets, and I am a free
market guy. The government stopped the free market from working here,
and I think this is why it's such an important story.
If the government had just gotten out of the way,
Spirit and Jet Blue would have merged and we would
(24:30):
have five major airlines. I really do believe this right
now competing, which is better than four. Instead, Spirit and
Jet Blue were not allowed to merge. Spirit has gone bankrupt,
It does not exist. Jet Blue may end up going bankrupt,
it may not exist. And some of you may say, well,
how does heft help in the airline industry? These companies
(24:53):
are huge. It's not cheap to decide that you want
to enter the airline industry. But Robert in Newport News,
what you got for us all.
Speaker 8 (25:01):
Right, So you answered my question, you know, Kevin from
mister wonderful than in capitalism, those winners and losers. Yes,
so if Spirit lost, you would think that Jet Blue
another airline, as you said, get their gates, get their planes,
and Jet Blue can still compete. So that was question
number one. In question number two, we'll answer question number one.
But oh, Spirit Airlines, I used.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
To go, sorry, let me cut you off the answer question. Sorry,
let me cut you off to answer question number one.
I think what's going to end up happening. And some
of you who are airlines experts can look at this.
The big four have way more heft and way more money,
so they will be able to pick to the extent
that they want any of the any of the remaining
(25:42):
assets of Jet Blue, whether it's gates, whether it's planes,
it will have to go through the full bankruptcy process.
But to the extent that those assets are valuable now,
the biggest companies will be able to grab them, would
be my expectation, because they have more heft, more revenue,
more opportunity to rab those assets. Sorry to cut you off,
but I think that's the answer to cut one. Now
(26:04):
tip question one. Now, maybe jeff Blue is able to
get some of those, but the reason they needed to
merge was they did not have the economic capacity, heft
size profits to be able to compete with the Big four.
That's what the intent of the merger was.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Sorry.
Speaker 8 (26:19):
Sorry, I was flying from Richmond to Fort Lauernew for
forty nine and fifty nine dollars. It was cheaper to
fly to Richmond. From flying to Richmond than Norfolk, where
I live and stay in a hotel. You can't run
an airline on fifty nine dollars, I mean how they
came up with that? So I don't Maybe air travel
is really for the wealthy and not for everybody else.
I'm not a rich guy. But if air travel really
(26:40):
costs for our company to remain healthy at four hundred
dollars round trip versus fifty nine, you know, one hundred
and twenty dollars, maybe those are the true rates for
supply equals demand. That's what the cost is.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, I think you're the call.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I don't know enough buck about the particular economics of
a Richmond route to South FLD, Florida. What I do
know is because I know the Southwest business model well
and the Southwest business model initially as they grew up
to the size that they are now was they went
into airports that were not considered primary airports. And so
(27:16):
they started in Texas flying love Field from jumping around
in Texas. When American Airlines pulled out as a hub
from Nashville, suddenly the city of Nashville had tons of
open gates. My understanding and some of y'all are probably
listening in Texas right now and know the Southwest Airlines
story way better than me, is that Herb kelleher whose
(27:39):
name I might be mispronouncing, who founded Southwest Airlines, had
a daughter at Vanderbilt and started flying in and out
of Nashville a lot because he wanted to see his daughter.
And when all these gates opened up, he was seeing
the city and he said, holy cow, we got an
opportunity basically to make Nashville a Southwest hub. There's lots
of travel back and forth between ten and Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
He did.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
And so now I fly Southwest everywhere because they came
in and they filled it up. But back in the day, Buck,
they didn't fly to LaGuardia. They flew to uh Island.
They didn't fly to National. They flew to BWI a
little bit best desirable areas outside of the metro big markets.
Now they've gotten way bigger. They took advantage of that
(28:23):
opportunity and they were way more affordable.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
We're like a one big running commercial for Southwest by
the way we need. The fact that we don't have
a Southwest endorsement on this program is crazy.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
It's a zero point one percent Southwest flyer. I've never
loved that.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I've never heard someone speak of a company with the
kind of love and and expertise that you do about
about Southwest Airlines. I would say this. I think that
transportation is I believe at something of a uh at
a crossroads. Meaning, first of all, I didn't mi might
I was to do a Tesla test drive last week.
(29:01):
This is all going to make sense to go. We
had we had to reschedule. They had a staffing issue,
which I don't love, but that's okay. But they were
going to come right to my house, which I love
that idea. And I'll say this, Clay. As autonomous driving
gets better and more adopted, people are going to start.
It's very it's a very different thing to say I'm
(29:23):
going to drive four hours, six hours, whatever, when you're
actually just lying back in your seat taking a nap
and whatever. So for example, for me to go to
Tampa from Miami, it's about a four hour drive. But
if I can get into a Tesla, and remember, you
can do this at night too, right, you don't have
(29:44):
to worry about night driving if I can get into
a autonomous car at eight pm and it gets me
to Tampa by midnight. And I don't, by the way,
on a charge, I don't have the paint. I think
people are going to start making it because the airlines
just sucks so much. People are so obviously from New
York to La Okay, you gotta fly, you gotta suck
it up, like there are some routes where you're gonna
deal with this. But I think people are going to
(30:05):
be looking at autonomous driving and soon they're gonna have
these vetole I think that's what. It's vertical takeoff landing.
I think it's vetoll personal vehicles that are going to
make a short term, low level flight far more appealing
because we just can't. You can't have this thing where
the airlines are making money off of driving you nuts,
(30:26):
making you miserable, making you uncomfortable, making your back hurt,
which is what goes, and blowing out your whole vacation
for two days because they don't have the you know,
they don't have the staffing or the routes or whatever.
Everyone's sick and tired of it. Yeah. I had this
exact conversation.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
I was down in God's Country on the Florida Panhandle
this weekend. Some of you watching on video may notice
may got a little bit more sun than I intended,
but it was it was great. But I was talking
with my buddies. I had a couple of them down
with me, and they were saying, well, how do you
decide Nashville to the you know, destined Panama City beach
(31:01):
area where we go a lot. It's about a six
and a half or seven hour drive if everything goes
well from Nashville to get down to that area. How
do you decide when you fly versus when you drive?
And Southwest has so many flights now that most of
the time now I just hop a flight for a weekend. Now,
if I were gonna go down for a week or
a long vacation, things would be different. But what I
(31:23):
was telling them was. But you know what could change
the game what you just mentioned Buck my Tesla self drive.
If you told me, hey, I can get in, I
can punch in an address and I guarantee that I'll
be there in seven hours, right versus what you said.
You get to the airport, you go through security, a
flight might be delayed. There's actually more certainty sometimes on
(31:45):
being able to just get a car and drive than
there is in being able to fly now, which I
think is a flaw of our transportation system. To your point,
when people feel.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Like it is safe to be on their phones, texting,
watching Instagram videos, whatever may drive wars you kick back.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
You watch a couple of movies on a six hour
drive instead of a you know, one hour flight, but
you factor in the time through security.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I think it changes things.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yeah, And I think autonomous driving is going to be
a big difference maker there. I mean, I'll tell you this,
you know, I I there are plenty of routes because
Florida North South is very, very tricky, and uh, you know,
there are plenty of routes that I would consider taking
a three or four hour car ride instead of trying
to deal with something with the AIRLINEEAH these days, So
that's something to keep in mind. I think we're going
(32:34):
to head in that direction.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
I also Elon is working on hyper loops, which eventually
I think will also be really because it just needs
to get better, because the airlines just aren't getting better.
They're getting worse. They're getting worse and and it's very
sad that they've turned into instead of things getting more
comfortable and better, they're saying, we can squeeze more profit.
If your back hurts, you lose three hours of your
(32:58):
day that you didn't need to. You're you don't get
any food or the food you're given as garbage.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
And where people are really getting grabbed is pack charging
for bags, right, so like you're there's not overhead bin
space where you boil the.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Disgusting thing they did where they go that won't fit
and you're like, yeah it does. They're like no, and
now you have to pay and they get a bounty
for that. As we've put that that was a thing
going on. And by the way, then your bag doesn't
make the plane. So you get on your vacation and
you get off and you're standing there at the at
the I basically have reached the point. Now, I'm not
a fashion play buck. I was.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
I was actually having this conversation. I will not ever
check a bag. I would rather show up in some
random city and have to go buy new clothes. Like
what what do I care? I can go to you know,
the clothes do not cost very much now, but at
least not the clothes that I wear. I can buy
a pair of jeans for thirty bucks. I can the
amount that you have to pay to check things.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Now.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
I know some of you women, My wife feels differently.
Her clothes are more important to her. How about that
can act to most of my gear? Like I'll just
wear new stuff And then some of you can tell
because you make fun of me and my pictures. But
I'm just not a clothes guy. You know, some industries
change in evolve for the better over time. Unfortunately, the
airline industry is not one of them. But here's one
that does. Buying a tree for your yard or plants
(34:17):
for your home for years, you'd have to go to
your local nursery, your garden apartment. Deal with all this nonsense.
How about this super efficient, super easy, and top quality
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(34:38):
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lot of them to help us green up our home.
We just got a whole bunch.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Of beautiful bamboo sent to us in the mail, just
arrived right at my front doorstep and now we've got
them out on our porch. Bamboo is great for Miami
because it can thrive in the super hot, difficult climate.
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(35:11):
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Speaker 6 (35:20):
Level up your brain and balance out your day with
the right amount of information and entertainment. Clay Travis and
Buck Sexton on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back into Clay
and Buck. We have much to discuss with you. Today.
We got deep into the Spirit Airlines, which unfortunately has
been scalped by Elizabeth Warren and co. It is no
more and it's it's a sad thing. I was hoping
(35:50):
that we would be able to smoke the peace pipe
and celebrate Jet Blue and Spirit a merger if you will,
the two nations coming together. Instead, No, they are buried
in their sacred burial ground. So that's what happened there
thanks to Elizabeth Warren. We will come back here. We'll
talk about Iran for sure. Clay I think feeling good
(36:12):
about things. Clay is feeling positive about the Iran situation
playing out the way that Trump wants it too. Will
discuss that play. Also, do you saw this article right
from the Daily Wire Luke Rosiak, who's been in an
investigative reporter for a long time. Guys, a lot of
you were thinking, Hey, I have to work so hard
at my job or the business I'm starting or whatever.
What do you think about people who are getting I
(36:34):
don't know, a million dollar check to hang out with
a family member pretending that they're doing home healthcare because
that's happening a lot. We should talk about this and
what's going on coming up next,
Welcome everybody. Monday edition of The Clay and Buck Show
begins right now. Thanks for being here with us. We
love hanging out with all of you. A lot of
news going on. Sorry if you got stranded because your
Spirit Airlines flight was canceled forever. It was not a
(00:21):
one time thing, it was all of them canceled. We're
going to talk about this in a minute. Democrats, with
Spirit Airlines burning down the village in order to save it,
as they say, figured you know what the best thing
to do would be. We can save Spirit Airlines the
Democrat way, which means just kill the whole thing, just
take the scalp. Elizabeth Warren deciding to step in on
(00:45):
the war path and make sure that Spirit Airlines is
no more. So the pow wow that she had to
try and make things better was a failure. That is
not a surprise. She broke the treaty and now Spirit
Airlines is no more. We will talk, by the way,
if you are a Spirit Airlines employee, we would very
(01:07):
much like to hear from you on this matter, and
we'll walk you through this. Because the Democrats, in their
usual just mendacity. I'll give that a word of the day. Mendacity.
That's a fun one. They are saying that this is
a Trump thing. It's because of the high gas prices. Yeah,
the entire airline collapsed because of a temporary uptick in
(01:31):
gas price. Give me a break. This was years in
the making, and Democrats weighed in on it, and they,
no surprise, made everything worse. And now the body of
Spirit Airlines sits at their feet, if you will, This
is all on them. So, mister Clay, any surprises here
(01:53):
at all about how this went down. We got iron stuff.
We got other things to talk about. Huge fraud in Ohio.
Will get to that. But Spirit Airlines. You're a Southwest guy,
so at least this doesn't affect your itinerary.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Fired up about this and we've talked about it on
the program a bunch of times over the years, and
I do think this is one where when people in
business screw up, you lose jobs and companies go bankrupt.
Right here, the government screwed up. And this is where
(02:26):
if you're a Spirit Airlines employee, I would actually like
to hear from you. There's fifteen thousand some odd people
who lost their jobs.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Buck. Here is what happened.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Because I do think this data matters, and this storyline matters,
and this narrative matters. And this is when I get
really angry. When government screws up, real people suffer. And
this is a perfect example of government screwing up. So
Spirit Airlines was in peril as a business and they
(02:56):
sold the company. They managed to find a company that
wanted to buy them. Jet Blue offered three point eight
billion dollars for Spirit Airlines. So if you owned stock
in Spirit Airlines, you were gonna be in a great spot.
You were gonna be in a position where where everybody
was able to basically get onto a new company, Jet Blue.
(03:21):
And we were gonna be in a position where the
four biggest airlines out there actually had competition. So if
you fly as I do, I'm on Southwest Airlines everywhere, Buck,
if you fly Southwest Airlines out of Nashville, there's almost
one hundred percent chance that you're gonna see me somewhere.
I really like Southwest Airlines, Buck, I have two point
(03:42):
five million Southwest Airlines points. That has to put me
in like the point one percent of most frequent Southwest
Airlines flyers.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I don't even know.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I don't even I wouldn't have to buy a ticket
for the rest of my life. I could probably just
use my points. But I love Southwest. It's the biggest
airline in Nashville. They do a good job of getting
me safely all over the place. Yes, it's not fancy,
I get it, but that's the reality.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
All right.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Then you've got America, and then you've got United, you
got Delta. They need a fifth competitor to help keep
down prices for a lot of different airports.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Across the country.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So Needing heft Jet Blue said we're gonna buy Spirit
Airlines for three point.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Eight billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And then I want to play some of these cuts
because I think this is so significant. Then Mayor Pete,
who was the Transportation Secretary at at the time, came
out and said, we're gonna oppose this merger the Biden
doj which got everything wrong. Mayor Pete, who was totally
unqualified to ever be in the cabinet and have this job.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
This is March seventh, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Mayor Pete announcing Pete Buddhajeedge announcing Transportation Secretary.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
We're opposed to this cut too.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Our department, the Department of Transportation has generally not gotten
involved in these merger cases, but that's changing today. It
is so important to make sure that passengers have choices,
that they have access to low fares, that they have
access to competition, and yet we've seen less and less
and less of that competition over the years. We are
(05:22):
taking a step that, again is unusual in terms of
recent years, but we think is the right thing to do,
supporting the DOJ's lawsuit and independently using our own authorities,
which are a little bit different from the DOJ, starting
our own investigation, and taking other actions.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
All right, I want to play another one because what
he was doing was echoed by Senator Elizabeth Warren by
so many other Democrats out there saying, oh, this is
anti competitive, this is going to make airline fares more expensive.
We can't allow this. Here is another flashback. This is
September twenty, twenty twenty three, on why Biden DOJ was
(06:01):
preventing this merger Cut three.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
You're saying that we have four major carriers that represent
eighty percent of their traffic and adding another one would
stop competition.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
By definition, a merger doesn't add a company at removes.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
By definition, a merger also gives for a competition that
they don't have presently of eighty percent.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
So our role is to make sure that there is
more competition, not less, and we will only act to
prevent a merger if there is a determination that a
merger would harm competition.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Okay, So let me ask so in other words, we
have four major airlines represent eighty percent of the traffic.
You're saying another competition would be what would not be competition?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
My point is taking two airlines and turning them into
one could mean less competition.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Okay, Buck, wrong on everything. I do want to give
credit there. Let me make sure that is Burgess Owens questioning.
He is a representative from Utah Republican congressman really grilling
him back in September twenty twenty three pointing out the
absurdity of this. So Buck, they sue under anti trust law.
(07:12):
A judge in Massachusetts I believe his last name was Walker.
Here's all of this, says, I agree with the Biden government,
this will be anti competitive, disallows the merger. Within a
few months, Spirit enters bankruptcy for the first time. Now
they have entered bankruptcy for the second time, and Buck
do you know what the end result here, I'm not
(07:33):
even gonna get into the fifteen thousand lost jobs, all
the people out there who are going to have less
opportunity to fly Spirit Airlines because the airline no longer exists.
Everybody is going to now buy Spirits assets for pennies
on the dollar, and the big four airlines are going
to have even more power because they're gonna get the gates,
(07:54):
They're gonna get the airplanes for pennies on the dollar.
And the end result is going to be consumed lose.
So the government got everything wrong here and everybody loses,
and I'm pretty pissed off about it.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Frankly well, Elizabeth Warren a couple of years ago, she
wrote this is on X I've worn for months that
a jet blew Spirit Airlines merger would have led to
fewer flights and higher fares. US Department of Transportation was
(08:28):
right to stand up for consumers and fight against runaway
airline consolidation. This is a Biden win for flyers.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
That is actual tweet from That is an actual tweet
from Elizabeth Warren. She has taken Spirit Airlines and driven
into the side of a mountain. It is no more.
It is now the plane from Indiana Jones, the Temple
of Doom that had no pilots and was just going down.
She was proud of herself and proud of the Biden
administration in doing so.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
This is why I am so angry too. Is when
you screw up in government, nothing happens. You get reelected
the people that you screw over. There are no consequences
typically for you. When you screw up in business, your
company goes bankrupt, the CEO gets fired. When you screw
(09:21):
up in your jobs, you get fired. Their real consequences,
they weren't just wrong, Buck, They were the exact opposite
of right. Like sometimes you're wrong and you're like, oh,
this is a little gradation of failure. This is they
did the exact opposite. All of these airline people were
in favor of this merger, and now the American consumer loses,
(09:44):
all of the shareholders lose, and probably even the debt
holders aren't going to be made one hundred percent full
fully compensated.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Here. Yeah, the Biden administration was like a doctor running
into the ICU and saying, take that patient off that
you know, IV drip right away, and the patient died.
And now They're like, look what those other doctors did. No, No,
this is what Biden's team did. They took the credit
(10:12):
for it, then they take the blame for it now.
Although I'll just note, Clay, there's something even more galling.
It's we talk and we're gonna be talking more about
it because of the Ohio big story in the Daily Wire,
Luke Rosiak, we'll talk about it. The fraud. I mean
billions and billions and billions of dollars and smallies are involved.
Once again. Interesting. It's one thing when government is wasteful
(10:33):
in an aptin stupid, now, that's bad enough. But when
government decides, like a big, lumbering, blind giant to crush
private industry because it's so dumb and feels like it,
that's particularly annoying. Right, That goes beyond even what we
see with government waste. This is now the government wasting
(10:55):
a company that could be doing just fine. Yes, yes,
again it is.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I think that what this is indicative of is a
lot of people just don't understand on the Democrat Party.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Basic business.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
If you've never made a payroll, if you've never founded
a business, and I'm not talking about a big, huge business,
I'm just talking about have you ever run a small
business that you hope to grow into a medium sized business.
I've done it. A lot of you out there listening
have done it. Buck and Eye Hecker doing it right
now with Crockett Coffee. There's all sorts of challenges associated
(11:33):
with running businesses, and when people who have no conception
of business come and stop you from being able to
do the best thing for your business, this is just.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And by the way, this judge across.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
The board, all of the Democrat Party, all of the
Biden DOJ, and the judge who was assigned this case,
they all got it completely wrong. And what happens to them.
Elizabeth Warren has a multimillion dollar pension. Everybody who worked
in the Biden DOJ is employed making millions of dollars.
The judge who got this one hundred percent wrong has
(12:10):
lifetime tenure. Nothing happens to him. The people who lose
are the Spirit Airlines employees and the shareholders of Spirit
Airlines who put their money into this company and were
not allowed to profit because Jet Blue couldn't buy their assets.
And by the way, jet Blue probably is going to
(12:32):
end up losing two because jet Blue is in dire straits,
and one thing they needed to do to be able
to compete with the big four airlines they.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Needed to have a half buck.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
They needed to have more airlines, more offerings, better opportunities
for consumers. And now what we're gonna see, I'm just
telling you is everybody out there on pennies on the
dollar is going to buy the spirit assets and the
strength of the four biggest airlines is going to grow.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Something is really up here because the airlines, like the
healthcare industry, well, I know that's not even really fair,
because there are healthcare breakthroughs, there are new exciting drugs,
you know, talking about GLPS recently like that. Somehow the
airline industry just gets worse all the time. Yeah, the
seats get smaller, the service gets worse, the tickets get
more expensive. So we know it has to be the
(13:24):
government doing stupid things because otherwise the market would short
this out over time. There has to So I'm very
curious if you really know, you know, if you're a
former or current airline execut or, you can explain why
is it that my airline attendants are more surly than ever,
my seat is more uncomfortable than ever, and I'm paying
more than ever for basically all of these airlines. Yeah, leuess,
(13:47):
that's what it feels like. Maybe not more than ever,
but certainly more than I have in the last ten
or fifteen years. I think it's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
And this would go to my general thesis that I
think a lot of you share the more government gets
involved in business, the worse the business does. And so
I think a lot of you.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Are frust If you're a Somali running a home healthcare business, buddy,
then you're doing great because you just get checks for
nothing millions of dollars. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
But I mean, I mean, it really is such an
interesting test. I mean, what does the government do that
is way better than private industry would be. I mean,
I'm not talking about provide the structure like to allow
capitalist structure to exist. The big picture of government, I'm
talking about government getting involved in healthcare. Do any of
you feel like healthcare as well run in the United States?
(14:32):
It's infuriating. Government getting involved in what airline should exist.
It's infuriating, and butuck, the real thing is we go
to break here airlines. The fixed cost of getting competitive
in an airline is so huge that it's hard the
moat that protects the existing businesses. You do know how
many billions of dollars you would have to raise to
(14:52):
decide that you want to get into airline competition.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I don't want to sound like a baby, but like,
can Elon just buy an airline and fix all that? Please? Elon,
if you're out there, you can do these Apparently no
one else can figure this out. You can do the
space travel thing. I'm sure you can get a flight
from Columbus to San Antonio going.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
I bet what Elon would do, honestly, Buck, I bet
he would just design brand new airports, and I bet
he would make the airport only exist for his airlines.
I mean, it would actually be fun if you went
back and you could redesign air travel. What would you
do differently? But we'll take some of your calls in
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Speaker 6 (16:46):
Common sense never sounded so good, Clay and bucking the airways.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Welcome back in Clay, Travis bus Sexton show a lot.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Of different people.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
This is a great call, and by great I mean
that it is awful that it happened, but this is
the real consequences. Rick, I want you to tell us,
because we've got a quick turn here. You said your
wife was a Spirit employee. How much stock in Spirit
did she have?
Speaker 7 (17:14):
Oh, just shure, I have a million, just.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Short of a million dollars in Spirit stock. So if
the merger had gone through, your wife would have gotten
as a employee and shareholder a million dollars. Instead, Elizabeth
Warren blocked it and she lost all of.
Speaker 7 (17:32):
That, exactly and exactly. And I'm a free market guy,
but honestly, the things that happened to Spirit had nothing
to do with their management or the flights. They have
the best safety rating and honestly they're they're in twenty nineteen,
they were the most profitable airline in the business.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Eric, Sorry, Rick, can you stick with us? Sorry, because
I want this story. I want you to share more
of your story. I think it's a good one. We've
got a quick turn here, but I want to make
sure Rick stays with us, because this is the real
consequence of poor management from a government perspective, and I
want that story. We'll come back to Rick, but in
the meantime, I want to tell you if you are
(18:11):
right now seeing everything going on with the IFCJ, you
would be incredibly proud of where your money is going.
This is selfless work that they are doing all over Israel.
I saw this work, whether it's building new bomb shelters,
whether it's helping people who don't have food in a
time of.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
War in the Middle East.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
This international Fellowship of Christians and Jews has built a
bridge between charitable Christians here and those of Jewish faith
living under harsh conditions and Israel. You can join Buck
and me and give forty five dollars right now to
rush life saving essentials to vulnerable people there under fire.
Eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ. That's IFCJ dot org.
(18:54):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton show. Okay, I
want to go back to Rick in Aaro Beach, Florida.
And this is why I think these stories are so
important for you to hear so. Rick and you said
your wife's Spirit employee. She had nearly a million dollars
in Spirit stock. If Spirit had been purchased by Jet Blue,
(19:16):
as the two companies in a free market had agreed to,
she would have received nearly a million dollars as part
of that merger. She would have then been part of
a company that was bigger, better, and theoretically more equipped
to be able to compete with the big carriers. And Rick, instead,
(19:36):
she along with every other Spirit shareholder, got wiped out
because of the Biden Department of Justice and the judge
who agreed with them.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
And then Spirit goes bankrupt.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
And for people who don't know this, when you go bankrupt,
all of the equity in the company vanishes. So Rick,
I want to bring you back in. How angry did
that make you?
Speaker 7 (19:57):
Well, obviously that's not a good thing. But there is
more to the story than just that. There's a series
of other things. Don't leave out Pratt and Whitney, who
is the engine manufacturer that that had a rework on
their engines which took a year each to do, and
that was on over one hundred planes. Pratt and Whitney
is a huge company. They're bigger than Delta, you know,
(20:18):
and they, because of Spirit's need for revenue, you know,
they gave up a full trimount, you know, to to
to just pacify them. You got a lot of people
that that that are the issues, and it really was
not the Spirit people, they did a great job.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
In Some people out there are like, oh, well the government,
the government actually got involved in a free market transaction
and made it worse.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
That's what I think a lot of people are missing here.
Speaker 7 (20:46):
Absolutely. And the government, well, the government wrecked the merger
which would have kept both Jet Blue and Spirit from
having financial problems. And obviously the fuel issues hurting Jet
Blue right now, just as it did on Spirit. But
my feeling and my honestly when the when the government
screwed up by getting involved, and then I got to
(21:06):
be honest with you, I think the government screwed up
by not getting involved enough on this last deal. But
by then the equity was gone and there was it
really didn't make financial sense. But I wish I wish
the Trump administration had gotten involved even more. And I
know Donald Trump did everything he could, but you know
it just when the government screws you up, then it
(21:27):
should have helped. And honestly, everybody knows that. Of course,
the the Iran issue is not a binary you know,
whether you're for it or against it. It just it
did increase Jeff Thuow. It went from two and a
quarter a gallon to two forty eight or four eighty
eight a gallon so damn near Dalut doubled, so you
know it did cause a huge impact to Spirit Airlines.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
You know was all the other well, thank you, thank
you for that. I appreciate, appreciate all the insights. So
Clay a few things about the reality of airline travel,
and I feel like everyone is aware of but you
should really think they they have decided that there's like
a calculated misery index they're working with. Now this is real,
meaning they they they bring in low base fares for
(22:13):
people and then they just call then they just price
out additional layers of do you want frustration or not?
Like do you want to be able to bring bags
on or not? Do you want to be able to
choose your seat or not? Do you want to wait
till the end of the boarding process or the beginning?
All these different things, So you're paying to avoid pain
(22:34):
and pain are the indicators or you know, pain are
the things that they are leveraging to try to squeeze more.
It's not things are getting better, it's we're gonna you know,
it's airlines won a few industries where making things worse
for you or not is really what it's all about.
You're not paying for goodness. You're not paying for goodness.
You're paying to avoid badness if you will. And that's
(22:57):
why people get so frustrated. It's also why when they're
masking every up on the planes and everything, the hair
trigger tempers were just going off and people were punching everybody.
And it wasn't just on Spirit airlines that was happening,
I might add, it was happening a lot of airlines.
And they've made It's true, it's not ours. They've made
seats smaller, they're squeezing more, they're squeezing work. We don't
have enough competition. This has to get better. It's Americans
(23:22):
should have better airline op And now they are very
safe to point that, to say this, and that's very nice.
Twenty years ago, thirty years ago, planes were not as
safe as they are now. So the safety thing we've
basically gotten down. You know, there you go, but it's safe,
but men, is it uncomfortable? Is it frustrating? And they
also operate at skeleton crews. How many times have you
(23:44):
had been on a plane that has landed and you
had that thought, you go, wow, this is easy. No,
line at TSA. I'm just cooling. Then they go, yeah,
we're gonna wait thirty minutes for someone to come and
let you in at the gate. Now that's one of
the best. That's just pure squeezing profit out at your expense,
that's all that is. Yes, So I just think this
(24:07):
is so important.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
We got a bunch of guys out there, like Robert
in Newport News, Virginia. This is important because you want
to talk about free markets, and I am a free
market guy. The government stopped the free market from working here,
and I think this is why it's such an important story.
If the government had just gotten out of the way,
Spirit and Jet Blue would have merged and we would
(24:30):
have five major airlines. I really do believe this right
now competing, which is better than four. Instead, Spirit and
Jet Blue were not allowed to merge. Spirit has gone bankrupt,
It does not exist. Jet Blue may end up going bankrupt,
it may not exist. And some of you may say, well,
how does heft help in the airline industry? These companies
(24:53):
are huge. It's not cheap to decide that you want
to enter the airline industry. But Robert in Newport News,
what you got for us all.
Speaker 8 (25:01):
Right, So you answered my question, you know, Kevin from
mister wonderful than in capitalism, those winners and losers. Yes,
so if Spirit lost, you would think that Jet Blue
another airline, as you said, get their gates, get their planes,
and Jet Blue can still compete. So that was question
number one. In question number two, we'll answer question number one.
But oh, Spirit Airlines, I used.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
To go, sorry, let me cut you off the answer question. Sorry,
let me cut you off to answer question number one.
I think what's going to end up happening. And some
of you who are airlines experts can look at this.
The big four have way more heft and way more money,
so they will be able to pick to the extent
that they want any of the any of the remaining
(25:42):
assets of Jet Blue, whether it's gates, whether it's planes,
it will have to go through the full bankruptcy process.
But to the extent that those assets are valuable now,
the biggest companies will be able to grab them, would
be my expectation, because they have more heft, more revenue,
more opportunity to rab those assets. Sorry to cut you off,
but I think that's the answer to cut one. Now
(26:04):
tip question one. Now, maybe jeff Blue is able to
get some of those, but the reason they needed to
merge was they did not have the economic capacity, heft
size profits to be able to compete with the Big four.
That's what the intent of the merger was.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Sorry.
Speaker 8 (26:19):
Sorry, I was flying from Richmond to Fort Lauernew for
forty nine and fifty nine dollars. It was cheaper to
fly to Richmond. From flying to Richmond than Norfolk, where
I live and stay in a hotel. You can't run
an airline on fifty nine dollars, I mean how they
came up with that? So I don't Maybe air travel
is really for the wealthy and not for everybody else.
I'm not a rich guy. But if air travel really
(26:40):
costs for our company to remain healthy at four hundred
dollars round trip versus fifty nine, you know, one hundred
and twenty dollars, maybe those are the true rates for
supply equals demand. That's what the cost is.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, I think you're the call.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I don't know enough buck about the particular economics of
a Richmond route to South FLD, Florida. What I do
know is because I know the Southwest business model well
and the Southwest business model initially as they grew up
to the size that they are now was they went
into airports that were not considered primary airports. And so
(27:16):
they started in Texas flying love Field from jumping around
in Texas. When American Airlines pulled out as a hub
from Nashville, suddenly the city of Nashville had tons of
open gates. My understanding and some of y'all are probably
listening in Texas right now and know the Southwest Airlines
story way better than me, is that Herb kelleher whose
(27:39):
name I might be mispronouncing, who founded Southwest Airlines, had
a daughter at Vanderbilt and started flying in and out
of Nashville a lot because he wanted to see his daughter.
And when all these gates opened up, he was seeing
the city and he said, holy cow, we got an
opportunity basically to make Nashville a Southwest hub. There's lots
of travel back and forth between ten and Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
He did.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
And so now I fly Southwest everywhere because they came
in and they filled it up. But back in the day, Buck,
they didn't fly to LaGuardia. They flew to uh Island.
They didn't fly to National. They flew to BWI a
little bit best desirable areas outside of the metro big markets.
Now they've gotten way bigger. They took advantage of that
(28:23):
opportunity and they were way more affordable.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
We're like a one big running commercial for Southwest by
the way we need. The fact that we don't have
a Southwest endorsement on this program is crazy.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
It's a zero point one percent Southwest flyer. I've never
loved that.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I've never heard someone speak of a company with the
kind of love and and expertise that you do about
about Southwest Airlines. I would say this. I think that
transportation is I believe at something of a uh at
a crossroads. Meaning, first of all, I didn't mi might
I was to do a Tesla test drive last week.
(29:01):
This is all going to make sense to go. We
had we had to reschedule. They had a staffing issue,
which I don't love, but that's okay. But they were
going to come right to my house, which I love
that idea. And I'll say this, Clay. As autonomous driving
gets better and more adopted, people are going to start.
It's very it's a very different thing to say I'm
(29:23):
going to drive four hours, six hours, whatever, when you're
actually just lying back in your seat taking a nap
and whatever. So for example, for me to go to
Tampa from Miami, it's about a four hour drive. But
if I can get into a Tesla, and remember, you
can do this at night too, right, you don't have
(29:44):
to worry about night driving if I can get into
a autonomous car at eight pm and it gets me
to Tampa by midnight. And I don't, by the way,
on a charge, I don't have the paint. I think
people are going to start making it because the airlines
just sucks so much. People are so obviously from New
York to La Okay, you gotta fly, you gotta suck
it up, like there are some routes where you're gonna
deal with this. But I think people are going to
(30:05):
be looking at autonomous driving and soon they're gonna have
these vetole I think that's what. It's vertical takeoff landing.
I think it's vetoll personal vehicles that are going to
make a short term, low level flight far more appealing
because we just can't. You can't have this thing where
the airlines are making money off of driving you nuts,
(30:26):
making you miserable, making you uncomfortable, making your back hurt,
which is what goes, and blowing out your whole vacation
for two days because they don't have the you know,
they don't have the staffing or the routes or whatever.
Everyone's sick and tired of it. Yeah. I had this
exact conversation.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
I was down in God's Country on the Florida Panhandle
this weekend. Some of you watching on video may notice
may got a little bit more sun than I intended,
but it was it was great. But I was talking
with my buddies. I had a couple of them down
with me, and they were saying, well, how do you
decide Nashville to the you know, destined Panama City beach
(31:01):
area where we go a lot. It's about a six
and a half or seven hour drive if everything goes
well from Nashville to get down to that area. How
do you decide when you fly versus when you drive?
And Southwest has so many flights now that most of
the time now I just hop a flight for a weekend. Now,
if I were gonna go down for a week or
a long vacation, things would be different. But what I
(31:23):
was telling them was. But you know what could change
the game what you just mentioned Buck my Tesla self drive.
If you told me, hey, I can get in, I
can punch in an address and I guarantee that I'll
be there in seven hours, right versus what you said.
You get to the airport, you go through security, a
flight might be delayed. There's actually more certainty sometimes on
(31:45):
being able to just get a car and drive than
there is in being able to fly now, which I
think is a flaw of our transportation system. To your point,
when people feel.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Like it is safe to be on their phones, texting,
watching Instagram videos, whatever may drive wars you kick back.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
You watch a couple of movies on a six hour
drive instead of a you know, one hour flight, but
you factor in the time through security.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I think it changes things.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yeah, And I think autonomous driving is going to be
a big difference maker there. I mean, I'll tell you this,
you know, I I there are plenty of routes because
Florida North South is very, very tricky, and uh, you know,
there are plenty of routes that I would consider taking
a three or four hour car ride instead of trying
to deal with something with the AIRLINEEAH these days, So
that's something to keep in mind. I think we're going
(32:34):
to head in that direction.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
I also Elon is working on hyper loops, which eventually
I think will also be really because it just needs
to get better, because the airlines just aren't getting better.
They're getting worse. They're getting worse and and it's very
sad that they've turned into instead of things getting more
comfortable and better, they're saying, we can squeeze more profit.
If your back hurts, you lose three hours of your
(32:58):
day that you didn't need to. You're you don't get
any food or the food you're given as garbage.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
And where people are really getting grabbed is pack charging
for bags, right, so like you're there's not overhead bin
space where you boil the.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Disgusting thing they did where they go that won't fit
and you're like, yeah it does. They're like no, and
now you have to pay and they get a bounty
for that. As we've put that that was a thing
going on. And by the way, then your bag doesn't
make the plane. So you get on your vacation and
you get off and you're standing there at the at
the I basically have reached the point. Now, I'm not
a fashion play buck. I was.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
I was actually having this conversation. I will not ever
check a bag. I would rather show up in some
random city and have to go buy new clothes. Like
what what do I care? I can go to you know,
the clothes do not cost very much now, but at
least not the clothes that I wear. I can buy
a pair of jeans for thirty bucks. I can the
amount that you have to pay to check things.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Now.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
I know some of you women, My wife feels differently.
Her clothes are more important to her. How about that
can act to most of my gear? Like I'll just
wear new stuff And then some of you can tell
because you make fun of me and my pictures. But
I'm just not a clothes guy. You know, some industries
change in evolve for the better over time. Unfortunately, the
airline industry is not one of them. But here's one
that does. Buying a tree for your yard or plants
(34:17):
for your home for years, you'd have to go to
your local nursery, your garden apartment. Deal with all this nonsense.
How about this super efficient, super easy, and top quality
fast growing trees. More than two million Americans have relied
on the largest online nursery in America. Fast Growing Trees
dot Com is the website making this possible. Healthy trees
(34:38):
and plants fresh from the nursery, delivered right to your home.
Fast Growing Trees has a large team of plant experts
with a ton of knowledge carry and I are a
lot of them to help us green up our home.
We just got a whole bunch.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Of beautiful bamboo sent to us in the mail, just
arrived right at my front doorstep and now we've got
them out on our porch. Bamboo is great for Miami
because it can thrive in the super hot, difficult climate.
And I know that because of the experts at Fast
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thrive guarantee. Go online to Fast Growing trees dot Com
find the trees and plants you want. Use my name
(35:11):
Buck as your promo code for twenty percent off your purchase.
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Speaker 6 (35:20):
Level up your brain and balance out your day with
the right amount of information and entertainment. Clay Travis and
Buck Sexton on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back into Clay
and Buck. We have much to discuss with you. Today.
We got deep into the Spirit Airlines, which unfortunately has
been scalped by Elizabeth Warren and co. It is no
more and it's it's a sad thing. I was hoping
(35:50):
that we would be able to smoke the peace pipe
and celebrate Jet Blue and Spirit a merger if you will,
the two nations coming together. Instead, No, they are buried
in their sacred burial ground. So that's what happened there
thanks to Elizabeth Warren. We will come back here. We'll
talk about Iran for sure. Clay I think feeling good
(36:12):
about things. Clay is feeling positive about the Iran situation
playing out the way that Trump wants it too. Will
discuss that play. Also, do you saw this article right
from the Daily Wire Luke Rosiak, who's been in an
investigative reporter for a long time. Guys, a lot of
you were thinking, Hey, I have to work so hard
at my job or the business I'm starting or whatever.
What do you think about people who are getting I
(36:34):
don't know, a million dollar check to hang out with
a family member pretending that they're doing home healthcare because
that's happening a lot. We should talk about this and
what's going on coming up next,
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