JetBlue won’t appeal ruling that blocks American Airlines partnership

came two months after the Justice Department moved to block JetBlue’s attempt to merge with Spirit, saying the deal would reduce competition and could lead to higher fares. DOJ attorneys said the loss of Spirit would be particularly harmful for price-sensitive consumers who depend on Spirit’s low fares.

Hayes said combining operations would create an airline that can be “a disruptive presence able to appeal to a broader set of customers.” He added: “We’re doing this to grow. We’re not doing this to consolidate. We’re doing this to try and get bigger so we can better compete with the Big Four airlines.”Given its decision not to pursue an appeal in the Northeast Alliance case,with Spirit, noting that DOJ itself has recognized “the benefits of JetBlue’s disruptive impact on the industry.

However, Bill Baer, who led the Justice Department’s antitrust division from 2013 to 2016, said that JetBlue’s decision is unlikely to hold much sway with regulators.“With an adverse decision on the Northeast Alliance weighing down their prospects to buy Spirit, [JetBlue] made a cynical but strategically reasonable choice,” said Baer, now a visiting fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.

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