Google Wins $10 Million Bid for Spirit Airlines Data, Union Challenges Sale

In mid-August, Google submitted the winning $10 million offer to purchase about 34 years of Spirit Airlines data, encompassing invoices, flight operations, Wi-Fi sales, employee records and crew pairings, while explicitly excluding customer personal data. The bid beat a $7.5 million proposal from Mercor and still requires judicial approval. The Association of Flight Attendants, which represents roughly 5,500 former Spirit flight attendants, lodged an objection, contending that the extensive employee information—over a million time-cards, hundreds of thousands of tax forms and millions of Microsoft files—poses privacy risks even after de-identification.

Union president Sara Nelson called the transaction “outrageous,” and legal scholars note the case highlights gaps in worker data protections compared with consumer rules. A hearing on the sale has been postponed to September 9, and the outcome could set precedent for how labor unions confront AI-driven data acquisitions.