The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced that Spirit Airlines has won the chance to expand its operations at Newark Airport, despite objections from other airlines.
Spirit will now get 16 peak-hour slot to take off or land their planes at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport.
The move “secures low-cost service options for Newark customers and improves competition in the Newark market, the Department of Transportation said in a statement.
The slots previously belonged to Southwest airlines and were being sought by JetBlue Airways and Alaska Airline.
Southwest announced in 2019 that it would pull out of Newark in favor of New York City’s LaGuardia.
JetBlue is currently engaged in a battle with Frontier Airlines over who should buy out Spirit.
Newark Airport currently has the worst cancellation rate among major airports.
Immediately after the announcement, the CEOs of several airlines – according to several fake reports – started chasing after the CEO of Spirit Airlines, but the latter was quickly spirited away through a back door on to a flight to an unknown destination – in the first class section, of course.
The CEO later commented about the latest announcement, “I think the negotiations were done in good spirit. I’m flying high now,” he said.