{"id":212087,"date":"2026-04-28T01:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/212087\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T01:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:31:08","slug":"budget-airlines-ask-trump-administration-for-billions-as-fuel-costs-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/212087\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget Airlines Ask Trump Administration for Billions as Fuel Costs Rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

A trade group representing low-cost airlines said Monday that it was asking the Trump administration for $2.5 billion to offset some of the cost of fuel, which has surged because of the war with Iran.<\/p>\n

Jet fuel prices climbed to about $4.10 a gallon in North America<\/a> at the end of last week, an increase of about 88 percent from the same time last year, according to industry data. That has led many airlines to raise ticket prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince February, jet fuel prices have increased by nearly 100 percent and are placing significant financial pressure on value airlines,\u201d the trade group, the Association of Value Airlines, said in a statement. The group added that the $2.5 billion \u201cliquidity pool\u201d it was seeking would be \u201cused exclusively to offset incremental fuel costs, as a necessary and targeted measure to stabilize operations and keep airfares affordable during this period of volatility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separately, one of the trade group\u2019s members, Spirit Airlines, is negotiating a loan of up to $500 million from the Trump administration. Under the developing deal, the government would have the right to purchase ownership stakes in the airline through financial instruments known as warrants. The government could end up owning as much as 90 percent of the company, which is in its second bankruptcy in two years.<\/p>\n

At a bankruptcy court hearing last week, Spirit\u2019s lawyer, Marshall Huebner of the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, confirmed the discussions with the government, stressing that time was of the essence. \u201cThe cash actually available to Spirit to fund ongoing operations is not going to last for very much longer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Huebner also said he had begun having conversations with Spirit\u2019s creditors about the proposed deal, which would give the government a more senior claim to Spirit\u2019s assets than the loans the airline has taken from other lenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe discussions are underway with all three of those groups that we hope will lead to consensus and support on all sides,\u201d Mr. Huebner said.<\/p>\n

A lawyer for one of the creditor groups, Michael Stamer of the law firm Akin & Gump, said it had received a copy of the proposed term sheet for the government deal.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Department of Transportation referred questions to the White House about the proposal from the budget airlines trade group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe White House is aware of outreach that was made by a group of budget airlines to the Department of Transportation, and the administration continues to monitor the health of the U.S. aviation industry for passengers and airline employees,\u201d Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said in a statement. He dismissed any discussion about the potential of such a deal.<\/p>\n

The trade group \u2014 which also represents Allegiant Air, Avelo Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Sun Country Airlines \u2014 also has been seeking emergency measures from Congress. The group wants lawmakers to temporarily waive a 7.5 percent excise tax and $5.30 per-segment fee that airlines are required to pay per passenger. The charges are typically incorporated in the cost of an airline ticket and deposited into a federal fund that pays for aviation programs.<\/p>\n

But it is unclear whether those efforts will gain traction.<\/p>\n

The budget airlines\u2019 group said on Monday that the infusion of $2.5 billion would be \u201ctemporary government support to preserve vital industry competition,\u201d likening it to the billions of dollars Congress approved for airlines<\/a> during the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

That relief, however, was directed to major airlines and low-cost carriers. This time, the major airlines have not joined the budget airlines\u2019 request for relief.<\/p>\n

There is also skepticism among lawmakers and government officials about whether all of the budget airlines need a cash infusion, according to people familiar with the discussions. While Spirit Airlines has filed for bankruptcy twice since late 2024, the other budget airlines do not appear to be in the same severe financial distress.<\/p>\n

Even the deal the government is negotiating with Spirit has received a mixed reception within the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

The secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick, has been the main champion of the deal, according to people familiar with the negotiations. But Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, has publicly expressed concern about whether the Spirit deal would be a good investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we don\u2019t want to do is put good money after bad, and there\u2019s been a lot of money thrown at Spirit, and they haven\u2019t found their way into profitability,\u201d Mr. Duffy told Reuters during an interview last week.<\/p>\n

A representative for the Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether the administration will be able to finalize a deal with Spirit without buy-in from Congress, where the idea of a bailout faces stiff headwinds from both political parties. <\/p>\n

Last week, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas and chairman of the committee that oversees aviation, called the rescue effort \u201can absolutely TERRIBLE idea.\u201d Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, criticized the administration for attempting to orchestrate a bailout when \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s war with Iran caused the sky-high fuel prices that finally did Spirit Airlines in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do the American people get out of this taxpayer bailout?” she said.<\/p>\n

There are vanishingly few scenarios in which the administration would be able to circumvent lawmakers to make a deal with Spirit, according to experts. One option under consideration, according to the people familiar with the negotiations, is for the president to invoke the Defense Production Act. However, doing so would require the president to make the determination that bailing out Spirit is in the national security interests of the United States.<\/p>\n

Karoun Demirjian reported from Washington and Lauren Hirsch from New York. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A trade group representing low-cost airlines said Monday that it was asking the Trump administration for $2.5 billion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[83816,66625,83820,83819,48260,18536,83818,81886,83817,1452,29553,31482,3278,5292,83821,5011,58362,9,24,63,5007,5291,33038,29554,81884,134,136,135,83822,18544,1069,901,1876],"class_list":{"0":"post-212087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-acquisitions-and-divestitures","9":"tag-airlines-and-airplanes","10":"tag-allegiant-air","11":"tag-and-economic-security-act-2020","12":"tag-avelo-airlines","13":"tag-commerce-department","14":"tag-coronavirus-aid","15":"tag-credit-and-debt","16":"tag-discount-selling","17":"tag-donald-j","18":"tag-duffy","19":"tag-federal-aid-us","20":"tag-federal-budget-us","21":"tag-fees-and-rates","22":"tag-frontier-airlines-inc","23":"tag-international-trade-and-world-market","24":"tag-mergers","25":"tag-new-york","26":"tag-new-york-city","27":"tag-nyc","28":"tag-oil-petroleum-and-gasoline","29":"tag-prices-fares","30":"tag-relief","31":"tag-sean-p","32":"tag-spirit-airlines","33":"tag-staten-island","34":"tag-staten-island-headlines","35":"tag-staten-island-news","36":"tag-sun-country-airlines","37":"tag-transportation-department-us","38":"tag-trump","39":"tag-united-states","40":"tag-united-states-politics-and-government"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}