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Judge blocks JetBlue from acquiring Spirit Airlines

nytimes.com

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Re: Judge blocks JetBlue from acquiring Spirit Airlines

#31

Post by markdown »

deadbabe wrote: post #30
paul7986 wrote: post #25

Bummer to read spirit might go under .. as a lite traveler ..stuff my clothes/belongings in a book bag ..spirit is very inexpensive and after ten or more good/fine flights in 2023 their my go to airline. None of my flights with them were any different than paying more to fly with the other more expensive airlines. My worst was a delta flight as they didn't clean the bathroom and it stink up the mid section of the pla…

Ironically I think Spirit’s big front seats are the best value in the sky in terms of price and comfort, and they’re usually available if you book early enough.

> big front seats

Do you mean business class?

Re: Judge blocks JetBlue from acquiring Spirit Airlines

#32

Post by avhon1 »

markdown wrote: post #31
deadbabe wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically I think Spirit’s big front seats are the best value in the sky in terms of price and comfort, and they’re usually available if you book early enough.

> big front seats Do you mean business class?

Spirit literally calls them "big front seats".

https://customersupport.spirit.com/en-us/category/article/KA...

Re: Judge blocks JetBlue from acquiring Spirit Airlines

#33

Post by kelnos »

stevehawk wrote: post #11
eganist wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm probably oversimplifying, but Alaska + Hawaiian creates a larger regional competitor to e.g American, United, and Southwest on a more local scale where most of their routes are complimentary (the two weren't substantially competing; Alaska offers a handful of CONUS to Hawaii routes, whereas Hawaiian offers CONUS as well as international routes to/from Hawaii), whereas JetBlue acquiring Spirit consolidates nationw…

The problem is that Spirit is but going to survive 2024. Between their debt situation and a number of their A320 Neos about to be grounded thanks to a Pratt and Whitney eff-up, they won't be around long enough to keep anything competitive.

If that's the case, why does JetBlue want to acquire them now? Why not wait until they file for bankruptcy protection, and likely get a much better deal?

Re: Judge blocks JetBlue from acquiring Spirit Airlines

#36

Post by cjrp »

stevehawk wrote: post #11
eganist wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm probably oversimplifying, but Alaska + Hawaiian creates a larger regional competitor to e.g American, United, and Southwest on a more local scale where most of their routes are complimentary (the two weren't substantially competing; Alaska offers a handful of CONUS to Hawaii routes, whereas Hawaiian offers CONUS as well as international routes to/from Hawaii), whereas JetBlue acquiring Spirit consolidates nationw…

The problem is that Spirit is but going to survive 2024. Between their debt situation and a number of their A320 Neos about to be grounded thanks to a Pratt and Whitney eff-up, they won't be around long enough to keep anything competitive.

And their share price has just tanked ~50%. Maybe that was the plan all along...

Re: Judge blocks JetBlue from acquiring Spirit Airlines

#37

Post by taspeotis »

_zagj wrote: post #35

Meanwhile MSFT, a monopolist megacap, was allowed to buy Activision-Blizzard?

Yup, a firm monopoly on videogames if you ignore consoles [1], and PC (Steam, Epic) and mobile.

[1] https://www.ign.com/articles/ps5-has-outsold-xbox-series-x-a...

Re: Judge blocks JetBlue from acquiring Spirit Airlines

#39

Post by dkjaudyeqooe »

jsyang00 wrote: post #6

This is a bad ruling, Spirit is likely to go under without acquisition. Neither firm had particularly large share of market.

Besides that it's a bad ruling because the US spent years allowing mergers between large players that were clearly anti-competitive, and now in the environment of dominant airlines, it's applying the rules that it should have to the big players, but to smaller airlines who are now at a disadvantage due to their size.

It's an utterly feckless uneven application of the rules to everyone's detriment. You couldn't have designed a worse airline industry if you tried.

Re: Judge blocks JetBlue from acquiring Spirit Airlines

#40

Post by rezonant »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #39
jsyang00 wrote: post #6

This is a bad ruling, Spirit is likely to go under without acquisition. Neither firm had particularly large share of market.

Besides that it's a bad ruling because the US spent years allowing mergers between large players that were clearly anti-competitive, and now in the environment of dominant airlines, it's applying the rules that it should have to the big players, but to smaller airlines who are now at a disadvantage due to their size. It's an utterly feckless uneven application of the rules to everyone's detriment. You couldn't have d…

Yes this is terrible. All it does is ensure Spirit will continue to be terrible until it goes under and prevent a major competitor from arising for the big 3 airlines. The doublespeak required to say that keeping Spirit as it is pushes air ticket prices down is baffling, unless we are to assume that the quality that you get with Spirit is in any way comparable to the large airlines (it's not). It's almost like saying we need to keep this bike company around so that it can drive car prices down.
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