A Spirit aircraft at JFK
JetBlue Airways, which in July of last year announced plans to acquire Spirit Airlines, said it expects that the U.S. Department of Justice will sue this week to block the merger.
The airline’s CEO, Robin Hayes, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that U.S. antitrust regulators seem intent on stopping the deal. The two airlines argue that the merger will increase rather than decrease competition and reduce the cost of flying.
“My sense is they came to the table with their minds made up,” Hayes said in the interview Monday. He added that his airline was prepared to battle the DOJ in court.
JetBlue announced a deal to acquire Spirit Airlines in a $3.8 billion transaction on July 22, 2022. The deal has the potential to reshape the airline industry in the United States. The move came one day after Frontier’s bid for Spirit fell apart.
If the merger is consummated, JetBlue would become the nation’s fifth largest carrier, after American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Air Lines, and United Airlines.
“We believe we can uniquely be a solution to the lack of competition in the U.S. airline industry and the continued dominance of the big four,” said JetBlue CEO Hayes in a statement at the time. “By enabling JetBlue to grow faster, we can go head-to-head with the legacies in more places to lower fares and improve service for everyone.”
Spirit and Frontier had originally announced merger plans in February but that deal was called off after an extensive bidding war between JetBlue and Frontier. Ultimately, Sprit was unable to convince its shareholders to back the Frontier deal, which was almost $1 billion less than JetBlue’s.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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