The slots at New York’s LaGuardia airport cannot be leased or sold by JetBlue until 2028.
US regulators are set to approve the transfer of take-off and landing slots formerly held by Spirit Airlines to JetBlue Airways.
New York-based JetBlue won the rights to the 22 slots at New York’s LaGuardia airport at bankruptcy auction in July, but the acquisition required federal approval in the form of an exemption.
The Federal Aviation Administration has now approved that exemption, it says in a notice posted on the federal government’s website on 6 October. The agency has also prohibited the slots from being further leased or traded to other carriers until April 2028, and JetBlue must start service using the slots by April 2027 under the FAA’s use-or-lose provision.
A consortium of low-cost carriers had asked the FAA to impose additional restrictions to keep the slots from winding up in the hands of a larger airline in the future. Breeze Airways separately argued that further consolidation of competition at the airport could forever keep budget operators like itself out of the New York market. The airlines had asked for a five-year lock-up period.
“Approving this transfer enables a limited incumbent, independent, non-aligned carrier to strengthen its competitive position against dominant competitors, which, with the benefit of greater slot resources, could pursue anticompetitive strategies such as significantly increasing existing services in any market entered by JetBlue,” says the FAA.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages the airport, had opposed the sale, arguing the slots did not automatically include access to terminal facilities.
JetBlue is hoping to use the increased LaGuardia access to bolster its service between the Northeast US and Florida on key leisure routes.
The post FAA clears JetBlue takeover of former Spirit slots first appeared on FlightGlobal.