JetBlue is retracting reports that it plans to raise prices by 40% after acquiring Spirit | News

Jet Blue The airline disputes a report that says court papers reveal its plan to raise prices by up to 40% on Spirit Airlines planes after acquiring the carrier for $3.8 billion.

“Unfortunately, after a registry error was made by the legal team of a group of consumers who filed an unfounded lawsuit, we are in a position where we need to correct the registry,” a spokesperson for the New York-based airline said on Aug. 25. .

JetBlue disputes the widely cited August 24 report from legal news service Law360. That report said plaintiffs challenging JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit failed to properly redact portions of a recently filed court document that were purportedly viewable if copied and pasted into another document. Law360 claims Mark JetBlue plans to increase ticket prices revealed 24-40% on Spirit aircraft after completion of the acquisition.

But JetBlue, which has insisted its acquisition of Spirit will increase competition, says the report contains errors.

The court documents in question “did not include JetBlue’s internal plans, but rather the plaintiff’s attorney’s interpretation of the court evidence,” says a spokesperson for the airline.

The details are murky in part because the information in the relevant court paper has since been fully redacted. It remains unclear whether the plaintiffs’ attorney used internal JetBlue information to come up with estimates of the alleged fare increase.

JetBlue argues that the facts were misrepresented by Alioto Legal, the San Francisco-based law firm representing air travelers and travel agents in a private lawsuit seeking to prevent JetBlue from acquiring Spirit. Prosecutors say the deal violated antitrust laws, according to documents filed with the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is also seeking to block JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit, in a separate case in the same court.

“The allegations reported by various media outlets do not reflect the facts set out in JetBlue’s documentation,” says a JetBlue spokesperson.

“It is important to understand that the revised text was content written and produced by Alioto in its court filing, and not a revision of internal JetBlue documents,” the spokesperson continues. “These revisions were in a text where Alioto, in his own words, explained his argument before the court, essentially representing the plaintiff’s view of the secret evidence they had reviewed.”

Attorney Joseph Alioto declines to comment on the revised material but points to public comments made by Spirit CEO Ted Christie prior to Spirit’s acceptance of JetBlue’s takeover offer.

cites a TV news interview in May 2022 With Christie’s, the airline’s CEO said that “half of the expected synergies” from JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit “will come from reduced capacity and increased prices for consumers”.

“This is not the plaintiffs’ trick,” Alioto says. It is an admission by Spirit’s CEO. To claim otherwise is JetBlue’s misrepresentation of facts already acknowledged by Spirit.

Law360 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

JetBlue previously said it plans to remove seats from Spirit’s Airbus fleet once the deal is finalized, and configure the cabins of those planes like its own.

But the company maintains that its proposed tie-up with Spirit would enhance competition with the “big four” US airlines – American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines And United Airlines With the increase in the number of low-cost flights available to budget travelers.

“We are confident that our merger with Spirit will give a much-needed boost to U.S. carrier competition and lead to even lower fares and higher quality customer service,” says JetBlue. “We look forward to presenting all evidence to support our case in October.”