He said JetBlue will increase the pay of Spirit employees. Hayes said Spirit planes will be converted to JetBlue’s configuration, which allows for more legroom and means there will be fewer seats for sale on each flight.
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American, United, Delta and Southwest control about 80% when international flights are included. Together, JetBlue and Spirit would have about 9% of the U.S. “We believe the most disruptive, the most effective thing that we can do is build a bigger JetBlue more quickly than we otherwise could.” to make a more competitive airline industry against the large, big four airlines,” Hayes said in an interview. “The real issue here though is clearly what can we do in the U.S. JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said those concessions will let other low-cost carriers, including Frontier, bolster their presence and thus increase competition. JetBlue's case for regulatory approval rests on two main arguments: That its size makes it better positioned to force bigger airlines to reduce fares and that it has already volunteered to give up Spirit gates and takeoff and landing slots at key airports in New York, Boston and Florida. “We have been listening to the folks at JetBlue, and they have a lot of good thoughts on their plans for that.” “A lot has been said over the last few months obviously, always with our stakeholders in mind,” Christie said on CNBC. Spirit CEO Ted Christie is being thrust into the awkward position of defending a sale to JetBlue after arguing vehemently against it, saying that antitrust regulators would never let it happen.
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The agreement Thursday capped a months-long bidding war and arrives one day after Spirit’s attempt to merge with fellow budget carrier Frontier Airlines fell apart. JetBlue Airways has agreed to buy Spirit Airlines for $3.8 billion and create the nation’s fifth-largest airline if the deal can win approval from antitrust regulators.