Spirit shutdown sparks crowdfunding frenzy to buy Haitian airline — and skepticism  

MIAMI — The collapse of Spirit Airlines has triggered a wave of speculation, hope and skepticism among Haitians in the diaspora after a shadowy entrepreneur launched a $25 million fundraising campaign calling on the diaspora to help create a Haitian-owned airline.

South Florida-based entrepreneur Jhonson Napoléon — long associated with fraudulent scandals, enshrouded business dealings and risk-taking zeal — began urging Haitians to rally behind what he described as an opportunity to build “an airline for the diaspora, by the diaspora.” His goal is to raise $25 million through public contributions to either purchase or lease aircraft assets going out of use from the airline’s bankruptcy.

“This is bigger than aviation,” Napoléon said in a video, urging support for the project. “This is about ownership, dignity, accountability, and believing Haitians can build major institutions together.”

Napoléon’s suggestion went viral in Haitian online spaces, where supporters celebrated it as a rare opportunity for Haitians abroad to collectively invest in a major business venture tied to national pride and access to air travel. Chatter has continued to spread widely on LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook and other forums. 

A site dedicated to collecting pledges of $50 to $25,000, HaitiRiseAir.com, has appeared. Another to be used as the company site, SpiritofHaitiAir.com, is under development. As of Thursday, the site tallied over 20,000 pledges totaling nearly $37 million. The pledges, per the site, are not funds being collected, but serve as a way to express interest. 

While interest is high, so is deep skepticism around the community.

Many Haitians online questioned both the financial feasibility of the proposal and Napoléon’s credibility, citing Haiti’s long history of failed diaspora-backed ventures, aviation projects and crowdfunding initiatives that generated excitement but ultimately collapsed amid mismanagement, lack of transparency or allegations of fraud and illicit traffic.

“This reads more like a buzz-generating statement than anything else,” Jefferson Jeanniton, a supply chain and logistics manager, said on LinkedIn. “This isn’t really adding up.”   

Jeanniton explained that with most of Spirit’s fleet being leased, lessors are already moving to repossess their planes. Regulatory approvals, operational setup, staffing, insurance, maintenance, and capital requirements alone would likely run into several hundred million dollars, potentially billions. 

Also, Jeanniton said, rising fuel costs and other industry pressures were major factors in Spirit’s situation from the start, and the airline industry as a whole is still facing significant challenges.

In a widely shared Reddit discussion, one user was blunt.

“This is obviously going to be a scam,” the commenter wrote. 

Others noted outright that Napoléon is not trustworthy to them.

“No lender will trust you [Napoléon] if you don’t have an established portfolio,” a Facebook user under DF Cangé wrote. “$25 million in promise won’t even be enough to secure a consideration.” [sic]

Another user posting as Magda Lerebours, concurred. 

“Napoléon is the social capital of CIE,” Lerebours said, referring to the Clayton Christensen Institute’s model of value-added networks, relationships and connections.

“How many social shares will each shareholder have?” she quizzed. “You don’t have to do it [the fundraising] on Facebook.” 

For Jacques Balynce II, another LinkedIn user, this is all about emotion, not serious business. 

“The real issue is we keep raising emotions instead of real capital, collecting comments instead of contracts, and chasing hype instead of building structure, he wrote.

“An airline isn’t a small business. This isn’t TikTok or GoFundMe where people drop $50 and hope it works out.” 

Many others, like Wilder Desinor, disagree. 

“I know there are some people who will always see it wrong, trying to divert others by creating false trouble and defaming,” he said. 

“They will look for every flaw, every mistake, to denigrate this fundraising movement. This is an invitation he [Napoléon] gives us to invest, as the Green Bay Packers [community-owned NFL franchise] did. If you believe Haitians can have that, start mobilizing to invest.” 

Several Haitians also accused Napoléon of simply adapting a viral American crowdfunding idea launched by a TikToker for a Haitian audience.

Napoléon, a native of southern Haiti, has not yet responded to a Haitian Times request via phone and LinkedIn messages for comment on his critics’ remarks or on specific details regarding the feasibility of his plan.   

“We believe this moment could allow us to lease or acquire a few aircraft to operate routes the Diaspora actually needs,” he wrote on his crowdfunding campaign site.

Airline fever dream evokes past failures

A Haitian-owned airline is far from a new idea.

Over the years, several diaspora-led projects have promised to create sustainable air transportation linking Haiti to major U.S. cities. Most failed before becoming operational or struggled to survive financially.

Some on social media compared Napoléon’s airline proposal to earlier diaspora schemes from the 1980s to the 2010s, in which community members were allegedly encouraged to pool money to create or acquire Haitian-owned airlines that never materialized. However, public documentation of those earlier efforts remains limited, and many of the stories survive mainly through oral accounts within Haitian diaspora communities. 

However, among the most notable was Haïti Trans Air, a heavily promoted project that sought to establish a Haitian-owned commercial carrier in the mid-1980s. But the company lasted less than a decade. And then came several other initiatives that never fully materialized despite years of announcements and fundraising efforts. 

For instance, Haiti Aviation, a similar venture backed by diaspora business groups in South Florida, collapsed after just five months because of undercapitalization, internal disputes, regulatory hurdles and weak business planning.

A Miami-based group called “FOCUS” also targeted Haitians through churches and Creole radio stations in the late 2000s, offering a range of investment portfolios, including a project for a community-owned airline that had never materialized. A 2010 federal investigation led to the group’s leaders—including Maxo “Max” François, Jean Fritz Montinard, Aiby Pierre-Louis and Maguy Néréus Jean-Louis—being charged with investment fraud after they raised approximately $8 million from more than 600 Haitians in South Florida.

The repeated failures have left many Haitians wary of ambitious projects marketed through nationalism and emotional appeals to diaspora solidarity.

At the same time, the strong online reaction to Napoléon’s campaign reflects a broader frustration among Haitians abroad, many of whom feel excluded from meaningful investment opportunities connected to Haiti.

Another factor fueling the response may be that Haiti’s aviation sector remains fragile and politically sensitive. U.S.-based carriers, such as American Airlines, JetBlue and now-defunct Spirit, suspended flights to the country since November 2024 because of ongoing gang violence that triggered a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ban on using Port-au-Prince’s airspace. Haitian travelers, especially in South Florida, continue to face high ticket prices, limited routes and frequent disruptions— with only Haiti-based Sunrise Airways and South Florida-based IBC Airways the only options.

Project copies TikToker’s crowdfunding model

Napoléon’s proposal emerged shortly after a separate viral U.S.-based crowdfunding movement sought to “buy” Spirit Airlines after the carrier’s earlier shutdown. The campaign, Spirit 2.0, was launched by TikToker Hunter Peterson. He urged people to pledge money, starting at $45, to support a theoretical community-owned airline model called “owned by the people, for the people.” 

Similarly, Napoléon’s slogan for the Haitian version of this says “an airline built for the diaspora, by the diaspora.”

Peterson’s campaign, as of Thursday, had generated $337 million in nonbinding pledges. However, legal and aviation experts quickly warned that acquiring Spirit’s assets would likely be impossible through public crowdfunding because bankruptcy courts prioritize creditors and debt restructuring.

Spirit Airlines is bankrupt after years of financial losses, failed merger attempts and mounting debt reportedly exceeding $8 billion. Analysts expect many of its remaining assets to be auctioned or absorbed by larger carriers.

Links to corrupt dealings questioned

Napoléon has long presented himself as a savvy entrepreneur with multiple businesses ranging from real estate, food and beverage distribution to education. 

However, as his airline proposal spread online, critics also resurfaced questions about Napoléon’s business history and ties to Azure College, a South Florida nursing school he founded in 2004 run by his sister, that became embroiled in a massive federal investigation into fraudulent nursing diploma — called “Operation Nightingale.” Napoleon’s sister Johanah is serving a sentence after pleading guilty.

Corporate records show Napoléon listed as an officer, registered agent and president for Azure College in Florida— although the institution ceased operations, with its accreditation officially relinquished on July 13, 2023, following the diploma fraud investigation. 

Online discussions about Napoléon’s airline proposal frequently referenced those investigations, with users accusing him of benefiting from questionable education ventures targeting Haitian immigrants and other vulnerable communities in South Florida.

Some commenters also pointed to previous business schemes and informal investment projects promoted within Haitian diaspora circles.

Although Napoléon’s pledges aim to gauge interest and willingness to invest later, the backlash reflects a growing distrust within parts of the Haitian diaspora toward entrepreneurs using social media campaigns tied to patriotism and collective economic empowerment.

Jean Médard Alézy, also known as Dadou Couleur, a popular social media presence and daily radio host in Pompano Beach, questioned Napoléon’s motive.  

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“Jhonson Napoléon must give Haitians a break,” Alézy, who hosts DIYOSA, which means “Tell Them That” in English,  said in a video. 

And a commenter, identified by GwoZoz as profile,  in a Reddit forum added: “He’s a known scammer and admitted to it. The government shut down his ‘college, ‘ and isn’t his sister in prison for fraud?”

Indeed, his sister, Johanah Napoléon, owner of Palm Beach School of Nursing, pled guilty to wire fraud in November 2021. In July 2023, she was sentenced to 21 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit $3.2 million. 

“It’s obvious Haitians abroad desperately want something positive to believe in, but people who are not naive are also afraid of being scammed again,” Alezy said. 

“What happened to all the nursing diplomas? Johnson owes people an explication [explanation] first and foremost,” Alézy said.

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