JetBlue, Spirit urge US appeals court to allow merger to go forward

JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines on Monday urged a US appeals court to overturn a judge's ruling that blocked their $3.8b merger at the US Department of Justice's request. The airlines in a brief told the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals that the judge wrongly barred their merger despite recognizing it would "improve competition, and thus reduce prices, for the vast majority of consumers." The airlines said the rationale driving the deal was by buying Spirit, JetBlue would roughly double in size and become a viable challenger to the four carriers that dominate US airline travel. Yet they said that U. District Judge William Young on Jan. 16 nonetheless held that the deal violated federal antitrust law after he "improperly chose to elevate the interest of a small set of hypothetical consumers over the interest of everyone else." Young, who presided over a non-jury trial, concluded the deal would harm consumers by eliminating no-frills Spirit's low fares and its ability to put pressure on other higher-priced airlines. The Justice Department is slated to respond to the airlines' appeal on April. 11. The court plans to hear arguments in June, ahead of the July 24 deadline the companies' merger agreement set out to close the deal.<br/>