Spirit Airlines on Monday rebuffed an acquisition offer from JetBlue Airways, saying regulators were unlikely to approve the proposal. In a letter to JetBlue, Spirit executives said they had determined that JetBlue’s acquisition offer, which was updated on Friday, would be unlikely to secure regulatory approval as long as that airline’s recently announced partnership with American Airlines was in effect. The Justice Department and several states have sued to block that alliance, arguing that it is anticompetitive, and JetBlue has said it will not abandon the partnership. On Monday, the chairman of Spirit’s board, Mac Gardner, said the company stood by its plan to merge with Frontier Airlines, a deal that predates JetBlue’s offer and that Spirit argued reflected the best interests of long-term shareholders. “After a thorough review and extensive dialogue with JetBlue, the board determined that the JetBlue proposal involves an unacceptable level of closing risk that would be assumed by Spirit stockholders,” Gardner said. “We believe that our pending merger with Frontier will start an exciting new chapter for Spirit and will deliver many benefits to Spirit shareholders, team members and guests.” Spirit and Frontier, both low-fare airlines, announced a plan to merge in February. Then, JetBlue stepped in with a bigger offer for Spirit, surprising many industry analysts and experts. Both deals would face scrutiny from Biden administration regulators, who have expressed more skepticism about consolidation than their predecessors. Some analysts contend that Spirit and Frontier are better suited to merge because they operate under similar “ultra-low-cost” business models but have more extensive flights in different parts of the United States. A JetBlue-Spirit combination could be more difficult to pull off because the airlines’ business models are quite different. But the deal could allow JetBlue to compete more effectively against the nation’s four dominant airlines.<br/>
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Ukraine International Airlines (UIA), the country's biggest carrier, said on Monday it had leased out its medium-haul Boeing 737-900 aircraft to Latvian carrier airBaltic to try to minimise its losses caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The company stopped operating services on Feb. 24 after Russia invaded Ukraine, targeting airports and other critical infrastructure and prompting the government in Kyiv to introduce martial law and close its skies to commercial aviation. "From May 1, the aircraft and crews of the Ukrainian airline will be based at Riga Airport to serve the partner network of flights," UIA said. Martin Gauss, airBaltic CEO said in a separate statement that by temporarily leasing the UIA aircraft, his company would also provide short-term work to the employees of UIA. "Ukraine International Airlines has been a reliable long-term partner of airBaltic," he said. Before the invasion, UIA employed about 1,300 staff and operated 25 planes in its fleet, including the wide-body long-haul aircraft Boeing 777-200ER, the long-haul wide-body aircraft Boeing 767-300ER, and 16 medium-haul Boeing-737 New Generation planes. The agreement is a 'wet lease' arrangement, whereby the lessor maintains operational control of flights while providing aircraft and crew. The Ukrainian company said four crews - 28 people in total - would be involved in the operational work of the UIA aircraft on the partner's routes. The aircraft will operate flights with the UIA corporate colour and livery preserved, as well as the crews.<br/>
An airline whose crew was detained in the Dominican Republic along with its passengers after alerting authorities to 200 kilograms of cocaine hidden in an internal compartment is urging the federal government to intervene ahead of a court hearing that could force them back to jail. Eric Edmondson, CEO of Pivot Airlines, sent a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly asking her to call on the Caribbean country to ensure the crew’s safe return to Canada. “For more than 24 days, our crew has been subject to threats against their lives, inhumane treatment and arbitrary detention for dutifully reporting a crime and averting a potential aviation disaster,” Edmondson wrote. “Time is of the essence.” Five Pivot Airlines crew members and six passengers were scheduled to return to Canada from Punta Cana on a chartered aircraft on April 5. Before takeoff, a mechanic discovered suspected contraband on board and police in Canada and the Dominican Republic were alerted. If the plane had taken off, Edmondson said, the location of the contraband could have sparked an uncontrollable fire. Dominican authorities jailed all 11 people on the plane, sending men and women to separate facilities, according to the airline. On April 6, the Dominican Republic’s National Directorate for Drug Control released a statement that said the group was “being questioned to determine their possible involvement” in the attempted shipment of illicit drugs. Two-hundred kilograms of cocaine, stashed in eight gym bags, was seized from the aircraft. Edmondson said the men were sent to a prison meant for narcotics criminals and were subject to harassment and beatings. The airline hired someone to ensure Pivot staff were fed and protected to some extent in prison, he said. Story has more.<br/>
Italy-based airline Aeroitalia will operate routes outside Europe from November, its non-executive president said on Monday. German Efromovich, a businessman who previously held a stake in Colombian carrier Avianca, said Aeroitalia had begun charter flights with two Boeing 737 planes and planned to add another six aircraft mid-year. Sales for commercial flights will begin in November, as the airline adds destinations within Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, Colombian-Brazilian Efromovich said in a video call. Specific destinations have not yet been confirmed, however. The airline plans to end 2022 with 10 planes in operation and sometime in 2023 add routes between Rome and Latin America, he said. Its capital is being put up by French banker Marc Bourgade, Efromovich said, without giving figures. Bourgade's control of Argentina's Avian airline will facilitate Aeroitalia's future connections, Efromovich said, adding that stability in ticket prices was aiding airlines' post-COVID recovery despite high gasoline prices.<br/>
Cebu Pacific has resumed domestic flights to Clark International Airport, located about 90 kilometers north of the capital Manila. The company announced that its Cebu-Clark flight on Monday was the first local carrier to use the airport’s new Terminal 2. “We are happy to be the first domestic flight to operate in the newly opened terminal, another first for us since we conducted a simulation flight for the Clark-Cebu route in December 2021,” said Cebu Pacific Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Michael Ivan Shau. Cebu Pacific started operating the Clark-Cebu route in 2006. Before the pandemic, the airline was also serving direct flights from Clark to six other domestic destinations, namely Bacolod, Bohol, Boracay, Davao, Iloilo, and Puerto Princesa. It also flew to four international destinations then, namely Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and Tokyo. It currently flies daily between Clark and Cebu. “As more borders open and leisure travel becomes available, we look forward to ramping up our network in this key hub to address the anticipated demand,” Shau said. <br/>