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Comment by ApolloFortyNine | Hacker News Reader

Will be interesting to see if them declaring bankruptcy ends up being better than the blocked Jetblue deal.

In legal filings, the Justice Department claimed that the merger would result in "higher fares, fewer seats, and harm millions of consumers"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_Airlines#2022_to_2024_a...

And now the result is no fares, no seats, and millions of customers with less of a choice.

I mean, presumably the shareholders will be wiped out, but the actual airline will probably continue existing in some form.

I'm not sure why I'm getting downvoted so heavily for this comment.

Instead of giving two smaller airlines a chance to work together and compete against the "Big Four", denying the JetBlue merger all but guaranteed that Spirit would have to file for bankruptcy.

The company's assets are worth more than the company itself so I wouldn't be surprised if it simply liquidates with the result being no fares (because no Spirit airlines), no seats (because no Spirit airlines), and millions of customers with less of a choice (because no Spirit airlines).

You’re getting downvoted because it’s evidence against the prominent sentiment of government good, big business bad. How could to government ever make a mistake.

The judges ruling was uneducated and poorly based, especially considering how the big four got to be so big. It was politically motivated to make the party/gov look good, but the long term results were good for nobody. I lost money betting on the merger, it makes no sense it got blocked.

I think the harm to millions of consumers is not from higher fares or fewer seats, it's from airlines treating us like we are cattle. Spirit is uncomfortable to the point of unsafe, and their entire perception of their customers is shameful.

Good customer service counts for a lot, it's not just ticket prices, otherwise Spirit would not be having these financial issues.

Spirit has nice planes and good service compared to Frontier.

Agreed have flown Spirit close to two dozen times and all those flights were smooth and inexpensive. Made me think why would I ever fly the pricier airlines when Spirit offers service to where Im going.

Frontier has roughly the same fleet Spirit does.

I misspoke, I meant Allegiant. Frontier is pretty good, a step down from Spirt but above Allegiant.

> it's from airlines treating us like we are cattle

And even with that, they're losing money and going bankrupt. The big 3 carriers in the US are propped up by their loyalty programmes which are surprisingly profitable; Alaska is the only other carrier doing good and expanding. Everyone else is struggling in some form.

Harm millions of consumers sounds like what Spirit has been doing alright with their service

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