The United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit to try to block the airline purchase low-cost Spirit by the airline JetBlue. The announcement, made this Tuesday at a press conference by the US Attorney General, Merrick Garland, comes after several US media advanced that the government of Democrat Joe Biden would try to prevent the merger.
"suppress competition between JetBlue and Spirit (…) would eliminate Spirit’s unique and disruptive role in the industry and do significant harm to consumers", assured the head of the Justice portfolio. The US considers that the purchase of the low-cost airline for 3.8 billion dollars would have a negative impact on travelers, which would see their flight offer reduced while the price of plane tickets would increase. In this regard, Garland recalled that Spirit’s own board told its shareholders that JetBlue’s plan to reconfigure the flights would result in "decrease in capacity and increase prices for consumers". The attorney general defended that the merger would take place "against the backdrop of an already highly concentrated aviation industry". The Department of Transportation, headed by Pete Buttigieg, has faced numerous critics for his management of the air transport system, as a result of the waves of delays and cancellations of flights that the country experienced throughout 2022. Buttigieg himself has promised that he will take action against the airlines if they do not carry out the necessary actions to protect consumers, most recently in the case of Southwest Airlines and its spate of flight cancellations over Christmas. According to data from the Department of Justice, the four largest airlines in the United States – American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines – control 80% of the market. JetBlue’s purchase of Spirit would make the latter the fifth airline in the country.
Spirit announced last July that it would accept JetBlue’s offer, despite previously raising concerns about the potential acquisition due to the airline’s alliance with American Airlines in the Northeast US, and the Department of Justice also tries to block.