Democrat fingerprints are all over the Spirit – Latest News
Regulators no longer have to fret that Spirit Airlines may upset the air-travel market by merging with the fallacious competitor.
The now-defunct airline made poor business selections and had to deal with powerful circumstances.
But if its demise had been an Agatha Christie thriller, the fingerprints of Joe Biden’s antitrust officers could be all over the crime scene.
These zealots fought a proposed deal between JetBlue and Spirit, and congratulated themselves on a 2024 courtroom victory that doomed Spirit to seemingly oblivion.
This was wanton financial destruction masquerading as antitrust enforcement.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who by no means met an antitrust motion she didn’t like, exemplifies the perversity.
After the Biden administration bought a federal choose to put the kibosh on the JetBlue-Spirit deal in 2024, she celebrated: “This is a Biden win for flyers!”
Last week, as Spirit teetered on the edge of the grave, she expressed dismay: “The Big Four airlines (American, Delta, Southwest, United) control 75% of the US market. Fewer choices = higher prices for you.”
Yes, it could be terrific to have a greater, more critical challenger to the established gamers, wouldn’t it?
If solely there’d been a technique to obtain such an end result.
The federal choose on the JetBlue-Spirit case conceded that “an expansion of all aspects of JetBlue’s business — including network, fleet and loyalty program — would allow for more vigorous competition with the Big Four, which carry most passengers in the country.”
No matter: For Biden officers, antitrust enforcement was a scholastic train the place the definition of monopoly had no connection to actuality.
If JetBlue had succeeded in gobbling up Spirit, that airline nonetheless would have been smaller than the Big Four.
Worrying about JetBlue getting too massive is like fretting that Thrifty — the fifth largest car-rental outlet in the United States after Enterprise, Hertz, Avis and Budget — is one comparatively small acquisition away from establishing market dominance.
As for the worry that the JetBlue-Spirit merger would finish Spirit’s function as an ultra-low-cost provider and subsequently hurt shoppers, the airline has now gone away anyway, solely in a more disorderly fashion.
JetBlue may surprise what Biden regulators had towards it.
As the web site View from the Wing factors out, JetBlue bought approval during President Donald Trump’s first administration for a partnership with American Airlines to develop in New York.
Then, the Biden staff confirmed up — and killed the partnership on grounds that straight contradicted its rationale for nixing the JetBlue-Spirit deal.
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“The Biden administration fought the American Airlines-JetBlue partnership,” View from the Wing notes, “calling JetBlue a pro-passenger disruptor who drives down costs.
“Then they turned around and claimed that JetBlue was a monopolist who would drive up prices if they bought Spirit.”
JetBlue itself is struggling, however not less than the airline remains to be with us.
Spirit had a good run primarily based on its initial disruption of the industry.
The airline’s concept was to make a fundamental fare extraordinarily low-cost, after which charge passengers charges for every little thing taken with no consideration at different airways (drinks, carry-on luggage and so forth).
The buyer expertise was horrible, although.
And Spirit bought buffeted by adjustments during the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas more established airways matched its fares with fundamental financial system.
Spirit stopped making money in 2019.
With the JetBlue deal blocked, it couldn’t get an different merger accomplished.
It declared chapter in 2024, after which again, in August 2025.
The current spike in jet-fuel costs pushed it over the edge.
Warren was fast to say that “Trump’s war was the nail in the coffin for twice-bankrupted Spirit airline.” Well, yeah.
But its susceptible state underlines how silly it was to keep it from getting the merger lifeline it so desperately needed.
Ronald Reagan stated the most terrifying phrases in the English language are, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
The Spirit fiasco reveals that maybe equally horrifying are the phrases, “I’m with the DOJ antitrust division, and I’m here to protect consumers.”
X: @RichLowry
