US federal judge William Young of the Boston court recently blocked the merger between the American airline JetBlue Airways and the ultra-low cost company Spirit. The agreement for the acquisition of the latter is worth 3.8 billion dollars. A victory for the United States Department of Justice, which had appealed, claiming that the agreement was anti-competitive and would have created a monopoly to the detriment of customers.

This ruling is "a victory for consumers around the world, who want lower prices and more choices", was the comment of US President Joe Biden, who has made competition in the air transport sector a top priority of his mandate. The White House's efforts to prevent further concentration in this area have been rewarded. 

The defense lawyers of the JetBlue company had defined the accusation as "misleading", as they said the merger between the sixth and seventh airlines would have created an entity with 10.2% of the domestic market in its hands, dominated by the four largest airlines (Delta, United, American, Southwest). However, Judge Young said the deal violated antitrust law, as "consumers who rely on Spirit's low-cost model would likely be harmed". 

On the same topic, see also the article published by AVIONEWS.