The Biden administration sued on Tuesday to block JetBlue airlines‘ $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit. Frontier lost the bidding war.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration sued on Tuesday to block JetBlue Airways‘ $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit Airlines, saying the deal would reduce competition and drive up air fares for consumers.
The Justice Department said the tie-up would especially hurt cost-conscious travelers who depend on Spirit to find cheaper options than they can find on JetBlue and other airlines.
Attorney General Merrick Garland was scheduled to hold a news conference to announce the lawsuit – a sign of the importance that the administration places on stopping further consolidation in the airline industry.
JetBlue and Spirit have anticipated the government challenge for weeks. The government had previously requested additional documents and depositions about JetBlue’s proposal to buy Spirit, the nation’s biggest budget airline. Negotiations over a possible settlement failed.
The Justice Department said in the lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Boston, that the deal would end direct competition between JetBlue and Spirit and eliminate Spirit, the nation’s biggest „ultra-low-cost carrier.“
„If the acquisition is approved, JetBlue plans to abandon Spirit’s business model, remove seats from Spirit’s planes, and charge Spirit’s customers higher prices,“ the department lawyers wrote. „JetBlue’s plan would eliminate the unique competition that Spirit provides – and about half of all ultra-low-cost airline seats in the industry – and leave tens of millions of travelers to face higher fares and fewer options.
