In parallel with the announcement of the launch dates for flights departing from Boston, which complement the routes launched in 2021 from New York, JetBlue has made a counter-takeover offer to get its hands on Spirit Airlines.
After the launch of its first transatlantic flights from New York JFK in August 2021, the American airline JetBlue has announced that its connections from Boston-Logan will begin from July 19. On this date, JetBlue will open a route to London-Gatwick. Another route from Boston will be launched to London-Heathrow from August 22. The flights will be operated by Airbus A321LR, including 24 Mint class seats. Recall that plans to open transatlantic routes had been announced by JetBlue in April 2019 but had been delayed due to the international air transport crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. On the Boston Logan-London Heathrow route, JetBlue will face very strong competition since the line is already operated by American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Virgin Atlantic and United Airlines. United’s daily route has been operated by Boeing 767-300 since April 14.
JetBlue covets Spirit
Along with strengthening its transatlantic routes, JetBlue made an important announcement to enter the post-Covid consolidation of American air transport. Indeed, it has just made a counter-offer to get its hands on its colleague Spirit Airlines. A merger of the latter with Frontier Airlines was initially announced at the beginning of February. But JetBlue did not hear it that way and has just made an unsolicited takeover offer. The American company has announced a takeover offer amounting to 3.6 billion dollars. This equates to a price per share of $33, up 50% from Spirit’s stock price on April 4, and up 37% from Spirit’s stock price at the time of the announcement of the takeover by Frontier Airlines. If completed, this new merger would create an entity offering 1,700 daily flights to 130 destinations in 27 countries. The JetBlue/Spirit combination would have a global fleet of 455 planes, with a total order book of 312 Airbuses.