Spirit Airlines CEO says industry is like a 'rigged game,' US consumers are 'long-term losers'

Spirit Airlines CEO Ted Christie said candidly astir nan hose industry, likening it to a rigged crippled and saying U.S. consumers are "the semipermanent losers."  

"Today, astir each nan profits of nan full U.S. hose manufacture are concentrated successful conscionable 2 companies, while nan smaller non-legacy carriers scrambled to reconstruct profitability successful what seems ever much for illustration a rigged game," Christie said successful an net telephone pinch analysts.

He added that "The Big Four are nan beneficiaries of this caller normal, American consumers are nan semipermanent losers." 

JUDGE BLOCKS $3.8B JETBLUE-SPIRIT MERGER, CITES 'ANTICOMPETITIVE HARM'

A Spirit Airlines pitchy taxis astatine Los Angeles International Airport connected April 4, 2024, successful Los Angeles, California. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Christie explained that until recently, nan bearer thought "the branding of nan caller installation mightiness beryllium blue." 

He was referring to nan grounded $3.8 cardinal merger pinch JetBlue Airways earlier this year. Christie had based on that nan woody to harvester nan carriers, primitively announced successful 2022, "would prevention hundreds of millions for consumers and create a existent challenger to nan ascendant ‘Big 4’ U.S. airlines," but it faced important regulatory pushback.  

JETBLUE, SPIRIT AGREE TO TERMINATE MERGER OVER REGULATORY ISSUES

In January, a national judge blocked JetBlue's acquisition of Spirit aft agreeing pinch nan Justice Department that nan woody would wounded nan readiness of low-cost aerial recreation tickets. 

JetBlue Airways planes beryllium connected nan tarmac astatine nan Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport connected Jan. 31, 2024, successful Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images / Getty Images)

"Looking backmost a mates of months, we still consciousness strongly, it was a superior misreading of some nan grounds and nan rule for nan Federal Court to enjoin our merger pinch JetBlue," Christie told analysts. 

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He said that "the truth that nan DOJ moreover brought a lawsuit to artifact a merger betwixt 2 carriers pinch little than 8% mixed marketplace share, conscionable shows really uninformed nan authorities is astir our move hose business, peculiarly successful nan post-COVID era."

FOX Business' Eric Revell contributed to this report.