Google agreed to purchase the corporate data archive of Spirit Airlines for $10 million, a deal that includes approximately 100 million emails and 500 million internal Teams messages from the insolvent carrier.

The transaction emerged from a bankruptcy auction where Google won the bid, beating an offer of $7.5 million from an AI recruiting company. However, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan delayed the final approval of the purchase after a labor union representing former flight attendants filed an objection.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA challenged the sale in court, citing privacy violations regarding the digital records. In response to the scrutiny, Spirit Airlines stated it is engaging a third party to deidentify the data and certify that the data sold at auction is compliant with applicable privacy laws and regulations.

A Google spokesperson stated that the company purchased a portion of Spirit Airlines' corporate data set and that these data could contribute to the development of products and AI models.