{"id":138026,"date":"2026-01-30T19:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T19:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/138026\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T19:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T19:53:07","slug":"jetblue-braces-for-a-post-spirit-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/138026\/","title":{"rendered":"JetBlue Braces for a Post-Spirit South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/airlinegeeks.com\/tag\/jetblue\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"JetBlue\">JetBlue<\/a> has several plans in place in the event of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spirit.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Spirit\">Spirit<\/a> shutdown, executives said earlier this week. These plans are particularly focused on the carrier\u2019s Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hub, but could include other markets.<\/p>\n<p>Spirit is currently the largest airline in Fort Lauderdale with a nearly 30% market share, while JetBlue is the airport\u2019s No. 2 carrier at 19%.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026 We do have multiple plans in place depending on the outcome of Fort Lauderdale and Spirit,\u201d JetBlue\u2019s CEO, Joanna Geraghty, said during an earnings call on Tuesday. \u201cSo we\u2019re ready for a number of scenarios to ensure that customers are protected and that we bring the JetBlue product and the offering to more folks in South Florida and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spirit\u2019s second-quarter capacity in Fort Lauderdale is expected to be down 15% compared to the same period in 2024, according to data from Cirium Diio.<\/p>\n<p>Other airlines have added capacity in the South Florida market as the bankrupt ultra-low-cost carrier has scaled back, though JetBlue doesn\u2019t expect any meaningful upsides.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, obviously, the rumors are out there. I think that there\u2019s certainly probably more rumors than they have airplanes, but I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any upside for us to try to make any assumptions on that,\u201d added Marty St. George, JetBlue\u2019s president, during the call.<\/p>\n<p>Second Bankruptcy Continues<\/p>\n<p>In August, Spirit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in less than a year. Its back-to-back bankruptcy filings followed a slew of failed merger attempts, including with JetBlue.<\/p>\n<p>Now, <a href=\"https:\/\/airlinegeeks.com\/2026\/01\/22\/report-spirit-in-talks-with-investment-firm-for-potential-takeover\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Castlelake has emerged as a new buyer for the ultra-low-cost carrier\">Castlelake has emerged as a new buyer for the ultra-low-cost carrier<\/a> after renewed merger talks with Frontier reportedly fell through.<\/p>\n<p>The airline is still working through its second bankruptcy filing, while shedding employees and aircraft. It has also pulled out of 18 destinations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JetBlue has several plans in place in the event of a Spirit shutdown, executives said earlier this week.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-138026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-fort-lauderdale","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}