Washington, D.C. — The American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement in response to news that Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines terminated their merger attempt, with a rival bid from Jet Blue still pending.

“Today’s news is welcome relief for flyers across the country and evidence that the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division’s efforts to police competition in the airline industry are working,” said William J. McGee, Senior Fellow for Aviation and Travel at the American Economic Liberties Project. “A Frontier-Spirit merger would have kneecapped what little competition remains in the airline industry. That said, there’s still more to be done. JetBlue’s efforts to acquire Spirit pose a similar threat, and are likely to exacerbate the appalling service, regional inequality, and diminishing trust in flying that now characterizes the industry. We urge the DOJ to shut down a JetBlue-Spirit merger.”

In recent years JetBlue has pursued one marketing or merger partner after another — first Alaska Airlines, and now concurrently with American Airlines and Spirit, two carriers with nothing in common other than preventing JetBlue from being leapfrogged in the all-important “size matters” market share rankings. It’s clear that JetBlue simply wants a partner — any partner — that will increase its size, regardless of the negative effects on consumers, cities, and labor.

To learn more, read Economic Liberties’ comment to the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, which highlighted the harms of airline mergers, here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

### 

The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.