Alison Sider

I mean, the U.S. airline industry, it's really dominated by four huge airlines. United, American, Delta, and Southwest Airlines. They came to their current form after a bunch of bankruptcies and mergers, and they dominate about 80% of the domestic travel market. And it's really hard for smaller airlines to kind of get the scale that they need to really be relevant.

Because if you are picking what flight you want to take and picking what airline you want to take, if Spirit only has one flight a day in your airport and American has 10, that just makes them a lot more interesting to you. So smaller airlines... all kind of are facing this challenge of like, how do we get bigger? How do we actually take on the bigger airlines?

Because if you are picking what flight you want to take and picking what airline you want to take, if Spirit only has one flight a day in your airport and American has 10, that just makes them a lot more interesting to you. So smaller airlines... all kind of are facing this challenge of like, how do we get bigger? How do we actually take on the bigger airlines?

Because if you are picking what flight you want to take and picking what airline you want to take, if Spirit only has one flight a day in your airport and American has 10, that just makes them a lot more interesting to you. So smaller airlines... all kind of are facing this challenge of like, how do we get bigger? How do we actually take on the bigger airlines?

No, I mean, I think at the time when Spirit was talking about merging with Frontier, the conversation was really about, you know, we're going to create this nationwide low fare competitor that's really going to challenge the big airlines. Spirit is kind of a little more focused in the east and Frontier is kind of a little more focused in the west.

No, I mean, I think at the time when Spirit was talking about merging with Frontier, the conversation was really about, you know, we're going to create this nationwide low fare competitor that's really going to challenge the big airlines. Spirit is kind of a little more focused in the east and Frontier is kind of a little more focused in the west.

No, I mean, I think at the time when Spirit was talking about merging with Frontier, the conversation was really about, you know, we're going to create this nationwide low fare competitor that's really going to challenge the big airlines. Spirit is kind of a little more focused in the east and Frontier is kind of a little more focused in the west.

And they were going to bring it together and just be this big budget presence that was just going to have a lot more scale and a lot more reach.

And they were going to bring it together and just be this big budget presence that was just going to have a lot more scale and a lot more reach.

And they were going to bring it together and just be this big budget presence that was just going to have a lot more scale and a lot more reach.

JetBlue kind of swooped in with a competing offer for a lot more money. And it set off this very fierce bidding war. Drama, drama, drama. CBS News transportation correspondent... What did JetBlue want with Spirit? You know, they sort of wanted the same thing that Frontier did. They really wanted to grow. And they wanted especially Spirit's planes and its pilots.

JetBlue kind of swooped in with a competing offer for a lot more money. And it set off this very fierce bidding war. Drama, drama, drama. CBS News transportation correspondent... What did JetBlue want with Spirit? You know, they sort of wanted the same thing that Frontier did. They really wanted to grow. And they wanted especially Spirit's planes and its pilots.

JetBlue kind of swooped in with a competing offer for a lot more money. And it set off this very fierce bidding war. Drama, drama, drama. CBS News transportation correspondent... What did JetBlue want with Spirit? You know, they sort of wanted the same thing that Frontier did. They really wanted to grow. And they wanted especially Spirit's planes and its pilots.

Spirit and JetBlue, they have the same type of fleet. At the time, there was a pretty significant pilot shortage developing in the U.S. So they really just saw this opportunity to, like in one fell swoop, just become a lot bigger. That it would be JetBlue that's going to become kind of the national challenger to the bigger airlines.

Spirit and JetBlue, they have the same type of fleet. At the time, there was a pretty significant pilot shortage developing in the U.S. So they really just saw this opportunity to, like in one fell swoop, just become a lot bigger. That it would be JetBlue that's going to become kind of the national challenger to the bigger airlines.

Spirit and JetBlue, they have the same type of fleet. At the time, there was a pretty significant pilot shortage developing in the U.S. So they really just saw this opportunity to, like in one fell swoop, just become a lot bigger. That it would be JetBlue that's going to become kind of the national challenger to the bigger airlines.

And Spirit and JetBlue negotiated a deal that they agreed to in July of 2022, a $3.8 billion deal.

And Spirit and JetBlue negotiated a deal that they agreed to in July of 2022, a $3.8 billion deal.

And Spirit and JetBlue negotiated a deal that they agreed to in July of 2022, a $3.8 billion deal.

So that sounds great for flyers, but, you know, antitrust enforcers are concerned when they hear that because it means... you're taking away a lot of cheap seats from the market. You're also taking away this kind of maverick airline in spirit that goes into markets with bargain basement fares and forces all the other airlines to lower their fares.