JetBlue's takeover of Spirit Airlines is cancelled. The two carriers announced this on Monday. The companies reached an agreement in 2022, but a US federal judge blocked the deal early this year, arguing that the two carriers would have too strong a position in certain parts of the market. JetBlue and Spirit now accept that judgment.

"Although both companies continue to believe in the benefits of a combination, JetBlue and Spirit have mutually decided that terminating the agreement is the best solution," the two carriers wrote before the stock exchange (US time). They point out that further legal proceedings are unlikely to produce a positive result before the deadline of July 24, 2024 set by the judge.

"Spirit and JetBlue are both low-cost carriers that wanted their merged companies to take on the Big Four in the United States," JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty said in a statement. JetBlue and Spirit Airlines had already agreed on everything, including the acquisition price of $3.8 billion.

The merged company would have become the fifth largest airline after American, United, Delta and Southwest.

There is another planned merger in the US aviation industry, between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. The question is whether it will receive approval.

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