Biden Administration will block Spirit Airlines, JetBlue merger

The proposed $3.8 billion merger of Spirit Airlines and JetBlue appears to be in jeopardy as the U.S. Department of Justice is likely to file suit against the move, at least five sources with knowledge of the matter told POLITICO.

The two carriers agreed to form what would be the nation’s fifth-largest airline last summer after a months-long bidding war that began when Frontier Airlines announced plans to purchase Spirit.

Earlier this month, Spirit said it expected a decision from the DOJ within “the next 30 days or so.”

“We are now waiting to see whether the Department of Justice filed suit to block the deal or allows us to proceed,” Spirit CEO Ted Christie said during an investor call.

While POLITICO reports that “people in the DOJ’s antitrust division have competing opinions about whether to bring a case,” the deal is further complicated by an ongoing lawsuit against JetBlue’s Northeast Alliance deal with American Airlines.

Nonetheless, JetBlue states that the merger would benefit travelers, creating a “long overdue national low-fare challenger” to the Big Four airlines in American, Delta, United and Southwest.

For now, it’s not known if the merger being blocked by the DOJ would put Spirit back on the market or if the ultra-low-cost carrier would accept a significantly lower bid to join Frontier as originally planned.