On January 16, 2024, a U.S. Federal Court blocked the Spirit / JetBlue merger. On its decision, the Court stated that Sprit’s market exit amid a potential merger with JetBlue could significantly harm consumers and the market. In the Court’s view Spirit is a maverick whose potential merger with a larger airline could deprive consumers from purchasing airline tickets at low prices
Such a decision contrasts with the Avianca/Viva case, on which Colombian authorities (namely, The Civil Aviation Authority – Aerocivil, the Competition Agency – the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce and the Superintendency of Companies) did not act in a decisive and steadfast way to prevent the demise of Viva and, ultimately, of the air transportation market, which is critical to the Colombian economy.
At the end of April 2022, Avianca and Viva announced to the Colombian public their intention to merge.
At the beginning of August 2022, the Parties filed the request for authorization before the Aerocivil under the failing firm defense (FFD) and, therefore, requested Aerocivil to authorize the transaction in an expedite manner. Here, it is worth clarifying that in Colombia there is no such thing as an expedite merger review, nor does the failing firm defense allows for an expedited merger control procedure. On the contrary, as argued by the interested third parties (competitors), a merger clearance request made under the FFD requires a much more detailed analysis than a normal merger.
