I think a private equity firm getting involved with NK is much more likely than F9/Indigo.

I thought Ted took another job already or am I mistaken on that?

 

This is a win for consumers and capitalism according to President Biden. I’m sure Spirit will just keep losing money indefinitely to keep the prices down. What a demented idiot.

 

And what if Spirit goes belly up?


"It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong."

Dr. Thomas Sowell

 

He joined a board somewhere. A side gig. Something where you earn a pilots salary to work a couple hours a year.

 

is capitalism when government tells you, you can’t merge or be acquired?

 

Abandon ship!

Take it from someone who knows.

 

This ruling shouldn't leave anybody 'stunned' and if it did, you really didn't think this whole thing through. All of the following was known from day 1:

1. JetBlue was planning not just to phase-out the Spirit brand (standard) but eliminate its entire ULCC business model, of which Spirit is the largest in the country.
2. JetBlue's hostile takeover happened only after their initial offer was rejected, and an amicable agreement between Frontier & Spirit had been reached (two companies with the same business model)

Then during, the court proceedings, JetBlue literally disclosed to the court (I'm sure by accident) that their plan was to eliminate this competitor, and raise prices. From a strictly legal standpoint it's pretty cut and dry as an anti-competitive move from the standpoint of anti-trust law. The original anti-trust legislation of the late 19th and early 20th century was aimed specifically at companies like Standard Oil and U.S. Steel whose strategy was to buy out competitors whose operation undercut their own price, and shut them down. There were many cases where Rockefeller would buy a small oil company and shut it down, without integrating it into Standard Oil. Unlike other mergers like Delta-NW, United-Continental, American-U.S. Airways, etc. etc. in none of those cases was the strategy to eliminate the other airline's business model entirely. Southwest's mergers have also been with like-carriers. This was like if Lufthansa bought out Ryan Air and turned it into an airline with reclining seats and jetways.

So on the very surface, it wasn't difficult to predict this very outcome without having to go on with conspiracy theories about bribery from the Big 3 airlines, or whatever. JetBlue is ostensibly a 'low cost carrier' (whatever that means) and it's silly to pretend that this wasn't what they were trying to do: eliminate a competitor which actually offered much lower prices on a fairly overlapping network. That doesn't mean you can't be upset that it didn't skate by or that it's a gloomy situation for Spirit at this time

 

That’s a layman’s opinion, apparently this judge couldn’t think any deeper either.

 

Looks like he did, and he was right. Couple key quotes:

1. “The Defendant Airlines already have high combined market shares in numerous markets. As measured by metropolitan area, JetBlue and Spirit have 99 nonstop overlap routes; between 30% and 40% of JetBlue and Spirit’s nonstop routes overlap.“
2. “The proposed merger has the potential to increase prices for customers in two ways: 1) with the elimination of Spirit from the market, consumers would no longer have Spirit’s low prices as an option; 2) with the elimination of Spirit from the market, consumers would no longer benefit from Spirit’s downward pressure on other airline’s prices.”

https://skift.com/2024/01/16/seven-k...it-merger/amp/

 

Don’t forget to vote for him this fall.

🔥👇