Frontier (FRON) may potentially get more gates and travel slots at LaGuardia's Marine Air Terminal, but it all rests on what happens with its budget travel rival Spirit Airlines (SAVE).
Spirit Airlines and JetBlue (JBLU) are currently in the process of attempting to merge. It’s unclear if this effort will be successful, as the Biden Administration has been cracking down on perceived monopolies. Last year, the Justice Department sued to block an agreement, dubbed the Northeast Alliance, between JetBlue and American, and last month a federal judge ruled that the partnership violates antitrust law. American is currently appealing the decision.
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So it’s entirely unclear if Spirit and JetBlue’s merger will actually come to pass, as the DOJ has sued to block it, citing concern about eliminating the largest budget airline in the U.S, claiming the merger would “lead to higher fares and fewer seats, harming millions of consumers on hundreds of routes." The DOJ also contends that "prices would increase on routes where the two airlines currently compete," which, for "over 40 routes," will make the "combined market share" so high that "the deal is presumptively anticompetitive."
California, Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina signed on to the lawsuit in early spring.
But in an effort to assuage the concerns of antitrust regulators at the Transportation and Justice departments, JetBlue has reached a tentative agreement to transfer Spirit Airlines’ six LaGuardia gates, as well as its 22 daily landing and departure slots at the airport to Frontier. At the moment, Frontier only has four daily slots at LaGuardia.
