Key Takeaways
- Google is paying $10 million in a bankruptcy auction for Spirit Airlines’ massive internal business dataset—10 million emails, 500 million Teams messages, and other corporate files—to improve its products and train new AI models.
- The company says an independent third party will scrub personally identifiable information before transfer, and court filings bar Google from trying to re-identify individuals, with no passenger or frequent-flyer data included.
- The sale, which still needs a federal bankruptcy judge’s approval, is part of Spirit’s broader breakup after shutting down in May, alongside aircraft sales and separate bids to revive the brand.
Spirit Airlines may no longer be flying, but one of the company's remaining assets has found an unexpected buyer: Google. The tech giant has agreed to pay $10 million for a massive collection of the defunct airline's internal business data, which it plans to use to improve its products and train artificial intelligence models.
According to bankruptcy court filings obtained by NewsNation, the dataset contains roughly 100 million emails and 500 million Microsoft Teams messages, along with spreadsheets, calendars, financial databases, presentations and other corporate records generated during Spirit Airlines' years in business. Passenger profiles and frequent-flyer information are not included in the sale.
The sheer amount of employee-generated material involved makes the deal unusual. Spirit's files cover areas including marketing, human resources, project management, audits, and company finances, potentially giving Google a huge dataset built from the day-to-day workings of a real corporation.
Google says it won't receive personally identifiable information from Spirit's records. An independent third party will scrub the material before it is transferred, and court filings state that the buyer may not attempt to identify individuals represented in the dataset.
"We acquired part of an enterprise dataset from Spirit Airlines, which can be helpful in improving our products and AI models," a Google spokesperson said. "We will not receive any personal information from this dataset."
The $10 million deal came through a bankruptcy auction, in which Google beat out AI-powered hiring company Mercor, which reportedly submitted the next-highest bid of $7.5 million. A federal bankruptcy judge still needs to approve the sale before Google can take possession of the data. A hearing initially scheduled for Aug. 19 was postponed until Sept. 9 after the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA objected and sought additional protections for employee data.
It's another unusual chapter in Spirit's breakup following its collapse earlier this year. The ultra-low-cost carrier stopped flying in May after its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy failed to produce a viable path forward. Spirit had spent months slashing routes and jobs while trying to overcome mounting losses, higher fuel prices, and years of operational problems.
Its last major attempt to stay alive involved negotiations for a $500 million government lifeline. Those talks collapsed amid resistance from creditors and lawmakers, and Spirit subsequently shut down. Since then, its bankruptcy has shifted from trying to save the airline to finding buyers for what remains.
That has included its planes. Spirit sought court approval for $275 million in debtor-in-possession financing connected to the sale of 20 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft, part of a larger aircraft deal valued at more than $550 million.
There have also been attempts to resurrect the Spirit Airlines brand itself. TikTok creator Hunter Peterson attracted more than $335 million in nonbinding pledges for a crowdfunded acquisition effort, while Mooney International later announced that it had formally submitted a bid for Spirit and related assets.
