Spirit Airlines
The Spirit Airlines data sale: what's for sale, who bid and where it stands
Spirit Airlines stopped flying on 2026-05-02 and is now selling its internal records through the Chapter 11 case. Google's $10.0M in cash won the auction in August.
The judge had not signed off by mid-October 2026. A hearing on 2026-11-06 is expected to settle it.
- Winning bid
- $10.0M, Google
- Backup bid
- $7.5M, Mercor
- Late offer
- $12.5M, micro1
- Sale hearing
- 2026-11-06
In this guide
01
The package: an airline's Microsoft 365 history
No planes or airport slots are included; this is a records sale. The flight attendants' union objection puts the archive at roughly 100M emails spread over 80,000 mailboxes, plus 500M Teams items, tens of millions of SharePoint and OneDrive files, and 175,658 personnel records dating from 1986.
The scope has shrunk since the auction. Once the privacy ombudsman filed her first report, Google gave up passenger name and transaction records, refunds, onboard sales, timecards and WiFi revenue, all without cutting its $10.0M bid. Internal messages and documents make up most of what is left. See what the archive holds.
Case
Chapter 11, filed 2025-08-29. Southern District of New York bankruptcy court, Judge Sean H. Lane, In re Spirit Aviation Holdings, No. 25-11897 (SHL).
Auction
Held online on 2026-08-14 and ran roughly 2.5 hours. Davis Polk and PJT Partners managed it. The privacy ombudsman's filing gives 2026-08-13 instead.
Winning bid
Google, $10.0M cash, after opening at $5.0M.
Alternate bid
Mercor, $7.5M.
Late offer
micro1, $12.5M cash, notice of intent filed 2026-09-03 (Dkt. 1556).
Status
Ombudsman recommended approval on 2026-10-05. Sale hearing set for 2026-11-06.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Case | Chapter 11, filed 2025-08-29. Southern District of New York bankruptcy court, Judge Sean H. Lane, In re Spirit Aviation Holdings, No. 25-11897 (SHL). |
| Auction | Held online on 2026-08-14 and ran roughly 2.5 hours. Davis Polk and PJT Partners managed it. The privacy ombudsman's filing gives 2026-08-13 instead. |
| Winning bid | Google, $10.0M cash, after opening at $5.0M. |
| Alternate bid | Mercor, $7.5M. |
| Late offer | micro1, $12.5M cash, notice of intent filed 2026-09-03 (Dkt. 1556). |
| Status | Ombudsman recommended approval on 2026-10-05. Sale hearing set for 2026-11-06. |
02
How the bidding went
Bidding took roughly two and a half hours. Google started at $5.0M and ended at $10.0M, twice where it began. Mercor put in several bids, one of them $10.0M if it could do the de-identification with its own tools. Spirit's side picked Google and held Mercor's $7.5M in reserve.
About three weeks later, on 2026-09-03, micro1 filed notice of a $12.5M cash offer, a quarter more than Google. Its plan: do the de-identification itself, hand a 1% sample to an outside reviewer and store everything in the US. More in who bought Spirit's data and micro1's bid.
03
Ombudsman support, union and lawmaker pushback
Lucy L. Thomson, the consumer privacy ombudsman, backed the sale on 2026-10-05. Her plan has Tonic.ai remove personal details from the unstructured records and certify that work to the court ahead of every transfer. Her review did not cover risks to employees or other third parties.
Six objections and joinders came in, from unions and two companies. 121 members of Congress sent a letter to the Spirit and Google CEOs, and EPIC (the Electronic Privacy Information Center) weighed in with an amicus brief. The hearing date has slipped more than once. Read the objections or the full timeline.
04
What Spirit means for other companies
No earlier reported US bankruptcy has auctioned a working company's internal messages to AI buyers. Spirit shows a big archive can attract rival bidders. It tells a smaller company nothing about price.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Did Google buy Spirit Airlines' data?
Google's $10.0M bid won, yet the judge still has to approve it, and had not done so by mid-October 2026. That decision is scheduled for 2026-11-06.
How much did Spirit's data sell for?
Google took the auction at $10.0M. Mercor sits behind it at $7.5M, and micro1 came in afterwards at $12.5M.
What data is in the sale?
The Microsoft 365 archive: roughly 100M emails, 500M Teams items, SharePoint and OneDrive files, and employee records, all de-identified ahead of handover. Passenger and transaction sets were taken out.
Who is the judge?
Judge Sean H. Lane, U.S. Bankruptcy Court (S.D.N.Y.), case No. 25-11897 (SHL).
Who strips the personal details?
Tonic.ai, which must certify its work to the court before each transfer under the ombudsman's recommendation.
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Sources
Every number on this page links back to one of these.
- 1Chapter11Cases (Stretto): docket report on the Spirit Airlines de-identified data salechapter11cases.com
- 2The Next Web: ombudsman backs Google's purchase of Spirit Airlines datathenextweb.com
- 3Skift: the list of objections to Spirit's data sale keeps growing (12 Oct 2026)skift.com
- 4Fortune: micro1 tries to beat Google's bid for Spirit Airlines data (14 Sep 2026)fortune.com
- 5Bloomberg Law: Google aims to boost AI with purchase of Spirit Airlines datanews.bloomberglaw.com
- 6iTnews: Google to buy Spirit Airlines business data for US$10 millionitnews.com.au
- 7Forbes: AI's new training data is your old work Slacks and emails (16 Apr 2026)forbes.com
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