JetBlue and Spirit Airlines are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to save their merger after it was blocked by a federal district court last month.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled in favor of the Department of Justice, which was seeking to block a deal for JetBlue to merge with Spirit, alleging antitrust violations. The DOJ had expressed concerns over Spirit’s low-cost fares being taken off the market as a result of a merger with JetBlue, along with its impact on routes Spirit serves.
In a brief filed to the appellate court on Monday, attorneys for the two airlines argued the merger would make them a viable competitor to the “big four,” who they note were allowed to expand in recent decades.
“These airlines are Delta, American, United, and Southwest, each of which was permitted to grow by merging with one or more other airlines,” lawyers wrote in the filing. “The rationale behind this proposed merger is that, by purchasing Spirit, JetBlue would roughly double in size and become a viable, fifth national challenger to those entrenched industry giants, bringing enormous savings and better service to millions of consumers.”
The two airlines also argued that the district court’s ruling “out of a concern for a subset of Spirit customers that it hypothesized ‘must rely’ on Spirit for air travel because they cannot ‘afford’ another airline” was ill-founded.
Attorneys claimed that the court “ignored its own findings that Spirit customers often choose other airlines when they travel,” which they say invalidates a key factor in the court’s opposition to the merger.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The DOJ will have until 5 p.m. on April 11 to file a response to JetBlue and Spirit’s brief, after which the two airlines will have two weeks to respond to the Justice Department’s response.
The federal appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments in June. The merger deal unveiled in 2022 has a deadline of July 24.
