JetBlue takeover of Spirit in jeopardy

The US government is at odds between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines.

The US Department of Justice plans to file an antitrust lawsuit against JetBlue Airways to prevent its acquisition of Spirit Airlines. In the summer of 2022, the airline won the bidding war with Frontier Airlines. Now the deal might not go through after all. Although Spirit's board of directors had long expressed doubts about the viability of the deal, JetBlue was ultimately able to close the deal for $3,8 billion.

The US Department of Justice wants to break up the "Northeast Alliance" - a pact between JetBlue Airways and American Airlines - to allow more airline competition in New York and Boston. This is reported by the German online portal Aero. As long as the matter has not been clarified, a merger of JetBlue and Spirit has "little chance of antitrust approval", Spirit had warned its own shareholders in 2022 against a merger with JetBlue.