For the NK pilots. Here's the comm's we received on our side this morning.


Dear Crewmembers,

I have great news to share. We have reached an agreement to buy Spirit Airlines to create a low-fare, customer-centric competitor to the Big Four airlines. This is exciting news, including for the many Crewmembers who have wanted us to accelerate our growth, especially in the focus cities outside of the Northeast and in legacy carrier hubs across the US.



Spirit's Airbus fleet and network fit perfectly with ours, and together with their 10,000 team members, we will fly more routes in more cities faster than we could on our own. Once Spirit is integrated into JetBlue we’ll be the nation's fifth largest airline, with about 9% market share. We'll still be smaller than the Big Four airlines, but with more than 1,700 daily flights we'll have more opportunities to challenge those legacy carriers to lower their fares and step up their game — just as we've been doing for 22 years.



A bigger JetBlue is good for Crewmembers, too. Whether you work on the front line or in the support center, a larger airline will provide more career and flying opportunities, as well as more investment in programs like JetBlue Scholars, our Gateways program and Support Center pathways.


The combined airline will be based in New York, but we will use this combination to expand our presence and grow jobs in Central and South Florida as well. We're looking forward to welcoming Spirit's team members into JetBlue once the deal closes. We've now had a chance to meet with Spirit's team face to face and have come to a very friendly place with them. I'm confident we will work very well together after closing. And we want all of Spirit's team members to feel welcome here at JetBlue. If you happen to talk to Spirit's team members on the line or while you are traveling, please share a little of that blue juice with them and let them know how excited we are that they will be joining us.


I know many of you will have your own questions about how we are going to integrate JetBlue and Spirit. It's important, though, we don't get ahead of ourselves. It will take quite some time before we are one airline. In fact, until Spirit's shareholders and the government approve our deal, we remain two separate companies with independent operations. And once we have gotten the green light to move forward, there will still be a lot of work to do to function as one, including sunsetting the Spirit brand, retrofitting their fleet and bringing together our operating and ticketing systems. We are also looking forward to learning from the Spirit team and bringing the best of the airline into JetBlue.


Now, while it's a long way off; when the time comes to consider incorporating our teams, especially combining unionized and non-union groups and groups with different unions, we're committed to working with our respective people and labor leaders to ensure a larger JetBlue is a winning proposition for all Crewmembers. And we will, of course, follow the law that governs seniority integration for our industry. All of this will not happen overnight though. Between JetBlue and Spirit, we'll put a great team in place to get the job done and we'll keep you posted in the months ahead.


Today is a day to celebrate though, I know there's a lot to manage in our day-to-day business right now, but we can't let that stop us from making game-changing moves that set us up for our future. By acquiring Spirit, we are making an important investment that will benefit us for the long term. In five or ten years we will look back on this as another defining moment for JetBlue, one that gave our one-of-a-kind airline with a brand that people love, award-winning service and everyday low fares, the opportunity to reach more people in more places than we ever have before. Thanks for all you are doing and we'll talk much more about this in the weeks and months ahead.


Robin Hayes
Chief Executive Officer