JetBlue is keeping its flights to Fort Lauderdale, regardless of Spirit’s fate

JetBlue Airlines The company is moving forward with its flight plans at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, regardless of whether the airport’s No. 1 airline, Spirit Airlines, gets a government bailout, its president said.

jetblue, United Airlines, Frontier AirlinesBreeze Airlines and others added flights last year to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Spirit’s main hub, as well as to other major airports where Spirit has a large presence. The moves came shortly after Spirit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in less than a year.

With a potential liquidation looming, budget firm Spirit is in talks with the Trump administration about a potential rescue plan that could include a $500 million loan that could also give the government a stake of up to 90%, said people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to talk about the deal before it goes public. The airline’s lenders are evaluating the deal this week.

Spirit has reduced capacity in recent years to save costs. In February, it still had the largest market share at Fort Lauderdale at nearly 25%, down from more than 28% a year earlier, while JetBlue’s share grew to more than 20%, up from 18.5% a year earlier, according to the latest statistics available from the airport.

“We have now added significant capacity” there, JetBlue President Marty St. George said on an earnings call Tuesday. “We have doubled the size of our next largest competitor.

He added: “We did not go into this with any expectation that the soul would depart.” “What we did is we took advantage of the availability of the portal that they created using some of their withdrawals.”

He added that JetBlue was happy with its unit revenues there, even with the capacity additions. “I think what it shows is that JetBlue’s value proposition resonates in South Florida,” he said.

The industry is facing a spike in fuel prices, but JetBlue and other carriers have so far reported that customers are continuing to book flights.

The Value Airlines Association, of which JetBlue is not a member, said Monday it was seeking $2.5 billion from the Trump administration to help offset the jump in fuel, the second-largest expense for airlines after labor.

JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty said the airline is open to “anything and everything, assuming the terms will make sense for JetBlue,” but added that the airline is focused on its JetForward strategy to return to profitability, including adding new products like domestic first-class seats.

The carrier is monitoring the situation and seeing what is “shaking the spirit and value carriers and whether there is anything coming their way,” she said.