JetBlue Airways CEO Robin Hayes was unequivocal when asked what he’d do if the U.S. Justice Department blocked his airline’s proposed buyout of Spirit Airlines, South Florida’s low-cost hometown air carrier.
“We’re going to court,” he told an interviewer last week at The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., a nonprofit forum for global leaders.
The two airlines are facing an uphill battle against federal regulators who have suggested the government might sue to stop the deal. Lawmakers including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged the U.S. Departments of Justice and Transportation to intervene in the name of consumer protection. And JetBlue’s unionized flight attendants announced their opposition last Thursday, calling the deal a “disaster” for workers and consumers.
