Scrapped merger of Spirit, JetBlue good news for Westmoreland airport, official says

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport’s top official welcomed Monday’s announcement that Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways are grounding plans for a proposed $3.8 billion merger.

“It is a great opportunity for us to know what we are facing. I think it holds nothing but good news for us,” said Gabe Monzo, executive director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority, which operates the airport in Unity.

Spirit Airlines, based in Miramar, Fla., is Arnold Palmer Regional’s only commercial airline. It offers a daily round trip between the airport and Orlando, Fla., and plans to resume daily nonstop seasonal service to Myrtle Beach, S.C., on April 10.

With the proposed Spirit-JetBlue merger off the table, Monzo said the airport now “is in a position to move in any direction it needs to.”

Whether Spirit Airlines wants to add service at Arnold Palmer Regional or decides to halt service, plans for a new terminal building will only enhance the airport’s options for attracting airlines, Monzo said.

Spirit spokesman Tom Fletcher could not be reached Monday for comment on what, if any, impact the canceled merger plans would have on the local facility.

The Westmoreland airport authority is planning a $22 million project to expand Arnold Palmer Regional’s terminal and add a gate.

Neither Spirit nor JetBlue offered any public comments on how the would-be merger might affect local service when the airlines were locked in a federal court battle over the deal with the U.S. Justice Department. The Justice Department sought to block the proposed merger, arguing that it would reduce competition and result in higher fares. A federal judge ruled in favor of the Justice Department.

Both airlines appealed the judge’s ruling that the merger would violate antitrust laws, but they walked away from the deal Monday. The airlines said it was unlikely they would be able to clear the remaining legal and regulatory hurdles in time to meet a July 24 deadline they had set to complete the proposed merger.

Monzo said earlier this year that Spirit’s proposed merger with JetBlue had shut down any talks with other carriers about potentially providing additional service at Arnold Palmer Regional. Other airlines said they were waiting to see what would happen with the proposed merger, according to Monzo.

Both JetBlue and Spirit offer service to Pittsburgh International Airport.

Matt Neistein, a spokesman for the Allegheny County Airport Authority, which operates Pittsburgh International, referred questions about the scrapped merger to JetBlue and Spirit.

Spirit served 844,384 people at Pittsburgh International last year, while JetBlue served 179,165 passengers, Neistein said. Spirit connects Pittsburgh with nine nonstop destinations and a flight to New York’s LaGuardia Airport is scheduled to start in May. JetBlue offers nonstop service to Boston Logan International Airport, Neistein said.

Before Spirit entered into a tentative merger deal with JetBlue, it had reached an agreement to merge with Denver-based low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines in February 2022. That deal was called off in July 2022.

A Frontier spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Monday on whether the airline would consider serving Arnold Palmer Regional now that the Spirit-JetBlue deal has fallen through.