Spirit Airlines CCO: More U.S. Airline Industry Consolidation ‘Inevitable’

BOGOTA—Matt Klein, Spirit Airlines executive vice president and CCO, said he expects to see more consolidation in the U.S. airline industry, even as the attempted JetBlue Airways-Spirit merger collapsed following a federal judge siding with the U.S. Justice Department’s (DOJ) assertion that the combination would violate U.S. antitrust law.

“Consolidation through acquisition and merger is part of the history of the U.S. airline industry,” Klein told the Routes Americas 2024 conference here in Bogotá. “I would tell you that consumers have benefited from consolidation. It's created a more stable environment. It's created a more stable industry.”

He added: “It's hard for me as an airline executive to say that consolidation has been bad. In fact, what we were attempting to do [by merging with JetBlue] was to create another competitor, a large competitor that could compete with the airlines that have been permitted to consolidate. The government thought differently.”

Citing the proposed Alaska Airlines-Hawaiian Airlines merger, which is currently being reviewed by the U.S. government, Klein said he has “no idea how that will play out,” but eventually another U.S. airline merger is “inevitable.”

"I believe consolidation will happen again," he said. "In my opinion, it almost has to happen again at some point in the future."

Despite the DOJ’s current negative view of airline consolidation, Klein said mergers “will occur because it makes sense. And to me, the business sense will overcome the fear out there that there's been too much consolidation already.”

Noting U.S. District Judge William Young’s ruling blocking the merger, Klein said: “If you read his opinion, he's pretty clear that he actually didn't disagree with the idea that consolidation can make sense. He was more concerned about … if [market] vacuums occur, how long they would take to be filled up.”