Why JetBlue Should Be Able to Proceed With Spirit Merger

Mergers among businesses, especially airlines, are like marriages.

It sounds good on paper, but you never know what you’re really going to get until you try it. It happens all the time on TV, but it's rare when a person stands up and says they oppose the marriage.

That’s what happened with the proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit. The government stood up.

The Department of Justice said on Tuesday it will file suit against JetBlue Airways, looking to block the potential merger with Spirit Airlines that would create the nation’s fifth-largest airline.

Their reason is that it would eliminate competition and drive-up fares.

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I call hogwash on this.

If it does increase fares, that is up for the consumer to decide. Like anything else a consumer buys, it is really based on price. And the buyer will decide eventually.

It seems very much like the government is trying to write the wrongs of the past with airline mergers such as this. We have danced this dance before. American-USAir. Delta-Northwest. United-Continental. Nobody opposed these mergers.

I’ve never met her, but I agree with one of the true power players in this industry.

Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants union, was disappointed.

“Our union supports this merger because it is the opposite of all of the ‘host of horribles’ we experienced with consolidation in the past decade,” she said in a statement. “The die was cast for concentrated corporate power when mergers were approved in the last decade to create four mega airlines that now control 81 percent of the market. The strong stance this administration has taken on competition and good union jobs set a foundation for a merger proposal with a JetBlue-Spirit combination that attempts to correct past antitrust failures, and instead drives competition to the highest standards for workers and consumers.”

And there you have it.

Let no government official put asunder.