Sean Duffy Says Biden Regulators Protected Competition Straight Into the Ground

Spirit Airlines didn’t disappear in one bad afternoon. It spent years bleeding money, carrying debt, and looking for a way out.

One possible escape route was a $3.8 billion merger with JetBlue. President Joe Biden’s administration helped block it, celebrated the courtroom win, and then watched the low-cost carrier collapse anyway. 

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) fully supports the Justice Department’s lawsuit under the Clayton Act to block the proposed JetBlue-Spirit merger. Robust airline competition makes it more affordable to fly. Travelers depend on low-cost flight options to see the world, go home for the holidays, visit their family and friends, show up to help in an emergency, or travel at the last minute. The Justice Department found that the proposed merger violates the Clayton Act by eliminating the largest, most aggressive ultra-low-cost competitor, grounding Spirit’s most cost-conscious customers, and substantially reducing competition on a significant number of concentrated, overlapping routes that carry millions of passengers.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the 2024 Biden-Buttigieg team helped push Spirit toward the ground while claiming it was protecting flyers.

Duffy tied the airline's collapse to the blocked merger between JetBlue and Spirit, which had been challenged by the Justice Department under the Biden administration.

"There was a proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit and Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg along with the Biden DOJ decided that they did not want that merger to take place," Duffy said.

He added that officials at the time framed the decision as beneficial to consumers.

"They bragged and said this was a victory for U.S. travelers who deserve lower prices and better choices," Duffy said. "This is not better for travelers. This is not better for pricing. This is not better for competition."

The Biden-era argument sounded noble enough. The Justice Department, then led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, sued to stop JetBlue from buying Spirit. Then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s department backed the lawsuit and argued the merger would eliminate Spirit as a major ultra-low-cost competitor. U.S. District Judge William G. Young blocked the deal in January 2024, and JetBlue later walked away.

Now the consumer-protection win looks a lot less heroic. Spirit ceased operations, customers scrambled for refunds and new flights, and workers had to be moved back to their home bases after the shutdown. Duffy’s Transportation Department coordinated with other airlines to help Spirit passengers and employees after the collapse. Protecting competition sounds wonderful until the competitor disappears.

Duffy’s point lands because the antitrust fight rested on a simple promise: blocking the deal would preserve competition and protect low-cost travelers. Instead, Spirit went under, flyers lost options, and roughly 17,000 jobs got dragged into the argument over whether regulators saved consumers or kneecapped an airline before it could be rescued.

Not wanting to be left out, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also left her feathers on the merger fight. In March 2024, she praised the blocked deal on X and called it a “Biden win for flyers.” After Spirit’s collapse, her old victory lap came roaring back across X.

I've warned for months that a @JetBlue-@SpiritAirlines merger would have led to fewer flights and higher fares.@JusticeATR and @USDOT were right to stand up for consumers and fight against runaway airline consolidation.

This is a Biden win for flyers! https://t.co/lJFGS3ucv3

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 6, 2024

Warren had warned the merger would lead to fewer flights and higher fares. Now flyers don’t have any Spirit flights at all.

Fuel prices mattered. Debt mattered. Management decisions mattered. No serious argument should pretend the blocked merger was the only factor. Still, Biden’s regulators didn’t watch from the cheap seats. They stepped onto the field, stopped the merger, celebrated the result, and now want people to believe the final scoreboard had nothing to do with them.

Biden’s team called it protecting low-cost competition, and the result was one less low-cost airline. Warren called it a win for flyers, and stranded passengers found out what winning looks like when their airline stops flying.

Duffy didn’t create the record. He’s simply pointing at the wreckage and holding up a sign that says:  “Buttigieg Was Here.”

The collapse of Spirit Airlines shows how government victories can age fast when real people get stuck with the bill. Biden-era regulators promised to protect flyers, Elizabeth Warren cheered, and now Sean Duffy is cleaning up the mess after Spirit stopped flying. PJ Media VIP keeps pulling apart stories like this without polishing the bureaucrats’ excuses. Subscribe today and get 60% off with promo code FIGHT.