JetBlue’s Spirit Deal Called Bid to Eliminate Low-Cost Rival

JetBlue Airways Corp.’s $3.8 billion deal to acquire Spirit Airlines Inc. is an effort to get rid of a low-cost rival and boost ticket prices across a wider network of flights, a US Justice Department lawyer told a judge at the start of an antitrust trial in Boston.

“JetBlue is counting on the fact that eliminating Spirit and the competition Spirit provides will allow JetBlue to increase fares,” DOJ attorney Arianna Markel said Tuesday during her opening statement. “That is real harm to real people.” The deal is intended to make “a bigger, turbo-charged JetBlue,” she said. “But bigger ...