Published on 7 May 2024 on Fortune via Yahoo Finance
Spirit Airlines CEO, still salty after its failed JetBlue merger, calls the airline industry a...
Spirit Airlines’ bid to make it to the big leagues in the American airline business—a proposed $3.8 billion takeover bid from JetBlue that Spirit says would have made it more competitive with industry leaders such as Delta and United—fell apart in March after running into a Department of Justice lawsuit. Months later, CEO Ted Christie III is still bitter.
“Today, nearly all the profits of the entire U.S. airline industry are concentrated in just two companies, while the smaller non-legacy carriers scrambled to restore profitability in what seems ever more like a rigged game,” Christie said in an earnings call Monday. “The Big Four [Delta, United, Southwest, and American] are the beneficiaries in this new normal. American consumers are the long-term losers.”