Hunter Peterson was eating dinner when he returned to find that strangers had pledged $2.3 million to help him buy an airline. "This started as a joke and this is rapidly going out of control in the best possible way," he said.
The joke began in May 2026 when Spirit Airlines stopped flying after more than 30 years. The ultra-low-cost airline shut down suddenly, laying off about 17,000 employees. A restructuring plan had failed because jet fuel prices had risen sharply.
Peterson, a voice actor and former YouTube employee, had a simple idea. With 250 million adults in the United States, if 20 percent paid about $30 to $40 each, they could buy Spirit Airlines. He created a website and the response was enormous.
By May 10, more than 371,000 people had pledged over $337 million. The minimum pledge was $45, the price of an average Spirit flight. The target was $1.75 billion.
No money has actually been transferred. Peterson explained that these are non-binding pledges to show serious interest. Each member would get one vote, regardless of how much they paid. He compared his idea to the Green Bay Packers, the only publicly fan-owned team in American professional sports.
Peterson has wanted to run an airline since childhood. He previously flew Spirit Airlines for 24 hours straight. Now he is asking millions of Americans to imagine owning an airline together.