JetBlue and Spirit agree to merge.

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JetBlue Airways said on Thursday that it had reached a deal to buy Spirit Airlines, a combination that could reshape the airline industry by putting pressure on the nation’s four dominant airlines.

The deal, which values Spirit at $3.8 billion, would create the nation’s fifth-largest airline, with a combined share of more than 10 percent of the market, behind United Airlines, which has a nearly 14 percent share.
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But while the airlines have agreed to combine, closing the deal is far from certain. The Biden administration has taken a tough stance on antitrust, challenging corporate mergers that may reduce competition. Regulators have already sued JetBlue and American Airlines over a partnership at airports in Boston and New York.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/28/...9774&user_id=da580a4cd1e82ea0128214184976a2ac
 
This is a big negative for Boston. As part of the agreement, JetBlue has agreed to eliminate the overlapping service, which means that Sprint flights will disappear from Boston. As an example., Boston-New Orleans is only serviced non-stop by JetBlue and Spirit. Now, JetBlue will be the only carrier and tickets will rise.

I don't know why they call JetBlue a low cost airline, I find their fares to be usually equal to or higher than Delta.
 
navigator4 said:
I don't know why they call JetBlue a low cost airline, I find their fares to be usually equal to or higher than Delta.
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"Low Cost" means for them, not for you. Common misconception.

At this point, honestly, I feel like a better distinction would be "business-focused" and "consumer-focused", since that's really what matters. Airlines like AA, United, and Delta make their money from business travel on expense accounts, while JetBlue and Southwest are either entirely or mostly for people paying for their own tickets. Alaska is an oddball hybrid of the two.

That's also why JetBlue's characterization of Southwest as a "legacy" carrier on the merger website is so silly. Southwest is 100% economy class. It's JetBlue that plays around with transatlantic flights and business class seats.

None of this has anything to do with economy class fares. Those are driven by many ever-shifting factors and will be all over the place, unless you're dealing with a Spirit or Frontier with a completely different fare structure.
 
navigator4 said:
This is a big negative for Boston. As part of the agreement, JetBlue has agreed to eliminate the overlapping service, which means that Sprint flights will disappear from Boston. As an example., Boston-New Orleans is only serviced non-stop by JetBlue and Spirit. Now, JetBlue will be the only carrier and tickets will rise.

I don't know why they call JetBlue a low cost airline, I find their fares to be usually equal to or higher than Delta.
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Delta flies to New Orleans. All of Spirit’s Boston routes except Atlantic City are flown by at least one other airline besides JetBlue.
 
If the merge is final, what name will it be called, Jet Blue or Spirit? A merge takes a while, sometimes even months before everything is finalized. :unsure:
 
JeffDowntown said:
There has been a lot of rumbling about this not being about merging service patterns, but about JetBlue buying trained personnel who are in desperately short supply.
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Eliminate a competitor, maybe get a better foothold in a couple of markets, add a bunch of employees that they need, and with a fleet of compatible planes to boot. Seems pretty clear that this is B6 bulking up rather than wanting Spirit for its network of destinations as such.
 
I note that Spirit has decent ops in ATL, Detroit and MSP. Will this entrench a DL-B6 rivalry or will those be the first to be “too hot” and be pulled down?

https://flic.kr/p/2ncQQWE
 
Brattle Loop said:
Eliminate a competitor, maybe get a better foothold in a couple of markets, add a bunch of employees that they need, and with a fleet of compatible planes to boot. Seems pretty clear that this is B6 bulking up rather than wanting Spirit for its network of destinations as such.
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Yup, if you can't find new pilots, buy someone else's.
 
Arlington said:
It seems kinda like ValueJet buying AirTran for the operating certificate.
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Valuejet had that high-profile crash back in the mid '90's & they were probably looking to change their name so that people wouldn't think of the crash. :unsure:
 
kmp1284 said:
All of Spirit’s Boston routes except Atlantic City are flown by at least one other airline besides JetBlue.
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Who besides Spirit has non-stop service between Logan and Myrtle Beach?
 
With this likely killing the American JetBlue alliance, I wonder if JetBlue will join one of the international frequent flyer programs?

From an antitrust perspective I think star alliance would be most likely, as JetBlue will have the least overlap with united (of the big 3) once this merger goes through.
 
jass said:
It seems like Alaska buying Virgin just to set money on fire and kill a quality product
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Alaska bought Virgin to get into LAX and SFO - which was a good reason - but I agree it killed a great product. JetBlue shanked that one with a lowball offer, which is why they went all out this time.
 
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