When long-time ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines declared bankruptcy just a couple of weeks ago, it sent waves across the aviation industry which led to questions regarding not just the future of the airline itself, but of the low-cost model as a whole. The carrier, which had been blocked from merging with both JetBlue and Frontier Airlines in recent years by the antitrust-focused Biden Administration, Spirit Airlines’ future could be subject to a shifting political environment.