Efficient, free markets had a solution to avoid the Spirit Airlines implosion. Instead, the worst possible outcome was catalyzed by government interference, which was intended to correct a “failure” of capitalism but instead replaced it with a historic catastrophe.
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This is truly unfortunate:
In 2022, JetBlue had agreed to merge with Spirit Airlines in a $3.8 billion transaction.
This was intended to end Spirit's imminent bankruptcy and employ the majority of Spirit's 17,000 employees.
One year later, in 2023, the US Department of Justice sued to block the merger, saying it would reduce competition and drive up fares.
Fast forward another 2 years to today, and Spirit has officially gone bankrupt, ceased operations, and 17,000 people are now unemployed.
And, tens of thousands of Spirit passengers are now "stranded."
The worst part?
The "reduced competition" that the DOJ thought they were avoiding by blocking the transaction has only gotten worse.
There quite literally is no competition in the space anymore.
This will go down as one of the biggest transactional failures in US history.
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