, has built his fortune investing in low-cost airlines. His private equity firm Indigo Partners has a controlling interest in Frontier and stakes in several budget airlines around the world, including Europe’s Wizz Air, Mexico’s Volaris and Canada’s Lynx Air.
If either Frontier or JetBlue acquired Spirit, the merger would create the fifth-largest airline in the United States. Consolidation in the airline industry has not always been good for consumers, and neither deal would be a slam dunk with regulators, according to antitrust expert Florian Ederer, associate professor of economics at the Yale School of Management.
“But I would think that Spirit and Frontier merging is a bigger antitrust concern than Spirit and JetBlue merging,” says Ederer. “That’s because, while JetBlue is a low-cost carrier, it’s not necessarily an ultra-low-cost carrier like both both Spirit and Frontier. So I'd say that there’s a lower risk of the JetBlue-Spirit acquisition being blocked.”
The sh**tiest airline of NA! 💁♂️💁♂️💁♂️