It has been a while since we reported on the latest progress in the JetBlue-Spirit merger. Since the bidding and fiendish competition between Spirit's two suitors, JetBlue and Frontier, was done with and the New York-based hybrid carrier emerged victorious, it has been pretty quiet surrounding the deal while regulators scrutinize it. However, a group of Florida-based travelers and travel agents has filed a lawsuit attempting to stop the merger.

The reason the deal, which will essentially eliminate Spirit, must be stopped, they say, is that it would cause airfares to rise out of major Florida airports where the two have large shares of the market. The two airports of particular concern are Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood (FLL) and Orlando (MCO) international airports, currently the scenes of fierce competition between the two airlines.

At Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Spirit currently has 30% of the market share, and JetBlue is number two at the airport with 19%. As many as 19 routes overlap between the two at FLL and 12 at Orlando. According to the Palm Beach Post, the lawsuit alleges that Spirit is "a significant price-cutting rival of JetBlue, as well as a rival of the legacy carriers and other low-cost carriers," and that,

"Approving the merger would allow JetBlue to gain a majority market share on more than a dozen routes where neither it nor Spirit previously dominated and it would eliminate price-cutting by Spirit.

"The continued vigorous competition of Spirit is one of the few, if not the principal, remaining competitive forces in the market. Its continued existence in the market is needed to preserve and protect the minimal amount of competition that exists in the airline industry today."

Spirit "the only one" to restore competition, suit alleges

And further (and potentially the finest piece of praise Spirit has received in a long time),

"Indeed, if there is to be any restoration of competition in the airline industry, Spirit is the airline that will cause it."

However, JetBlue's CEO Robin Hayes has previously argued that his airline acquiring Spirit will allow it to grow and put pressure on the larger airlines controlling over three-quarters of the US market. Indeed, JetBlue claims that merging with Spirit will create “a national, customer-centric, low-fare alternative to the dominant Big Four airlines."

Better comfort and OTP in exchange?

Meanwhile, a few other things may, in fact, improve should JetBlue get its wish of tearing out the characteristic bare-bones black and yellow seats in exchange for a more premium offering across Spirit's A320 family fleet. For 2022, according to the Cirium On-Time Performance Report, JetBlue reached the seventh spot when it came to on-time performance. (Frontier did one better, though, and reached spot six.) Spirit did not even make the top ten of North American carriers.

Should regulators approve the deal, and of course, given that this lawsuit - which touches upon matters the DOT will be looking closely at - is unsuccessful, the merger is expected to take place in 2024.

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Source: The Palm Beach Post, Cirium