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Spirit 2.0 — The Airline Owned by the People, for the People (letsbuyspiritair.com)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/workreform@lemmy.world
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The concept is explained much better in the link, but TLDR: People are trying to organize and crowdfund the purchase of spirit airlines assets with the goal of running it as a worker owned business similar to winco or rei. Seems at least tangentially relevant to this community

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[–] 10 points 5 months ago (4 children)

I'm intrigued, but I'd need to know more. Do I have to be an "accredited investor"? Would we be buying the entire airline, debt and all, or just its assets? How are day-to-day decisions handled; surely there will be some kind of leadership structure rather than pure democracy on the smaller details, right? And if there is, is democracy enough to prevent corruption, like we've seen in the supposedly democratic American government, or has there been any thought to the game theory behind the bylaws? I know they're not collecting actual money yet, but what are the chances this whole thing is a scam?

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    I have one major question. What assets? A fair number of airlines don't actually own their planes. They lease them. Mostly airlines buy each other not for the planes but for the routes. So are we the people going to coop routes? This only makes sense if the airline we buy goes everywhere. Spirit Airlines doesn't go everywhere. So the people who'd benefit are the ones who live work or travel to/near the routes that Spirit Airlines services. But you'd probably need more than those people to invest in the coop to keep it operational.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    I'm sure it would be ran like any other non-profit. Day to day handled by execs, bylaws/policy set by the voting share holders (however that is decided), then likely quarterly reviews/votes.

    Basically like a buisness that doesn't need to make money

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    Largest market chain where i live is run like this.

    A consumer cooperative (or customer-owned cooperative).

    Its a business owned directly by its customers, who usually become members by paying a small membership fee. Profits are returned to members as bonuses, discounts, or dividends, and major decisions are made democratically, but there is the normal corporate hierarcy running the day to day operations.

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