A trial deciding if JetBlue can buy Spirit — and further consolidate the industry — nears its end
Associated PressBOSTON — A lawyer for JetBlue Airways said Tuesday that the biggest U.S. airlines are using their size to cement their dominance in a post-pandemic world, making it critical that a federal judge allow JetBlue to buy Spirit Airlines. The lawyer, Ryan Shores, said JetBlue needs Spirit to be a “viable challenger” to the four airlines that control most of the domestic air-travel market. “That mandate is even more urgent today,” Shores said during closing arguments in a federal court trial over the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit to block JetBlue’s $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit, the nation’s biggest low-fare carrier. Duffy said JetBlue was contradicting itself by arguing that because of its smaller size it needs Spirit to grow fast enough to challenge the bigger airlines, while also claiming that even smaller low-cost rivals such as Frontier Airlines would have no trouble growing fast enough to replace Spirit’s presence in the market. The JetBlue lawyer suggested that it could be two or three years, “after the market has arrived at its post-merger competitive equilibrium.” Before the trial started, JetBlue sought to win regulatory approval by agreeing to sell Spirit’s gates and takeoff and landing slots at airports in Boston and the New York City area and give up some gates in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.