Posted on 03/08/2023 7:21:44 AM PST by jaydubya2
The Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday, 07 March 2023 that it had filed a lawsuit seeking to block JetBlue Airways' $3.8-billion purchase of Spirit Airlines.
In a 43-page document, the DOJ alleged the merger would reduce competition among U.S. domestic air-carriers and drive up consumer air-fares. Specifically, the department argued the deal would adversely impact low-income and cost-conscious travelers who depend on budget airlines—like Spirit—to provide bargain air-fares.
In their complaint, DOJ lawyers wrote: "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. 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."
Contrariwise, Attorney General (AG) Merrick Garland supported the DOJ’s suit, arguing the complaint correctly cites the proposed merger’s violation of Section 7 of 1914’s Clayton Antitrust Act—a WWI-era statute that seeks to prevent anti-competitive business practices in their incipiencies.
Speaking at a news briefing, Garland declared: "By acquiring Spirit, JetBlue will eliminate the largest ultra-low-cost carrier in the United States.” The AG further alleged that JetBlue intends to remove seats from Spirit's aircraft for purpose of diminishing capacity and driving up air-fares.
"We allege that JetBlue's proposed takeover of Spirit will only exacerbate concentration and further stifle competition in the airline industry," Garland noted, adding that approval of the merger would increase the risk of remaining airlines coordinating to raise fares and reduce capacity.
Concluding, Garland trumpeted: "The Justice Department is suing to prevent that from happening.”
(Excerpt) Read more at aero-news.net ...
Spirit is the worst airline in America. Should be called Biden Airways!
The Big Guy’s 10% check hasn’t cleared yet.
In other words, JetBlue plans on giving Spirit customers their legroom back.
I flew Allegiant last September, and I literally had my knees against the seat in front of me the whole flight.
Motel 6 in the sky.
Biden wants Americans to have a choice of two s___ty airlines competing to see which one can delay more flights and ding consumers with more fees.
They should sue to block Microsoft and Activision from merging. I am not a gamer but know this is bad for competition. Microsoft can’t lock up all the key gaming studios to monopolize the market with XBox. They have a bad history of anticompetitive behavior.
Lets block Albertsons merging while we’re at it. In Southern California they were strong competitors, Albertsons ate Safeway that ate Vons. They compete under many different store brand names in various markets. Walmart isn’t enough to keep prices down. Just saw Walmart raise its price on something I buy to match Kroger—Walmart used be cheaper by far, over a dollar—leaving Publix the best deal on that one item, by fifty cents. For now. Got to love Joe’s economy.
Spirit is going under. The merger with JetBlue is the only option for them.
Otherwise the poor will have no airline left.
All Jet Blue needs to do is wait for Chapter 7, and pay less money for the same thing.
Flew Spirit once. It was the Saturday night red eye from Vegas to Philly. Never again will I fly Spirit.
We used to fly Jet Blue in and out of Fort Lauderdale all the time. Whenever a Spirit flight landed, you would have sworn that it was coming from a third world country.
” you would have sworn that it was coming from a third world country”
The one time I was in the Fort Lauderdale airport, I thought I was in a third world country.
To be a fair bad weather in the Northeast had delayed lots of flights to that area but lots of people from all over the Caribbean in a crowded airport.
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