The Spirit Airlines Paradox
Read one way, the decision this week by a federal judge to block JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit Airlines is a milestone in the effort to revive American antitrust law. President Joe Biden has made competition enforcement a central part of his economic policy, and the JetBlue ruling marks the first time that federal regulators have ever won a lawsuit to stop a major U.S. airline merger. In his opinion, William G. Young—who was appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1985—explains in admirably plain language that absorbing Spirit would allow JetBlue to raise prices and reduce service on the routes where the two airlines currently compete. This would violate the federal Clayton Act—“a statute,” Young wrote, “that continues to deliver for the American people.”
Yet Young’s decision also inadvertently struck an odd note—one that hints at the limits of what antitrust enforcement alone can
