JetBlue wins auction for Spirit's LaGuardia flight slots (updated)
UPDATE 1-JetBlue wins auction for Spirit's LaGuardia flight slots Adds statement from JetBlue in second bullet point, updates first bullet point to differentiate between takeoff and arrival slots
By Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK, July 20 (Reuters) - JetBlueJBLU.O won an auction for bankrupt Spirit Airlines' takeoff and landing slots at New York's LaGuardia airport for a purchase price of $58.5 million, according to court documents.
Spirit is selling the right to 12 daily departure slots and 10 arrival slots at the busy and highly regulated airport
JetBlue said Monday that it is evaluating options for adding up to 12 round-trip LaGuardia flights in 2027
Frontier was the second-highest bidder at $57.5 million
Spirit will seek approval of the sale at a Wednesday bankruptcy court hearing in White Plains, New York
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration restricts the total number of flights at three busy airports in the U.S., including LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy International Airport, and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
JetBlue already had 31 slots at LaGuardia and Frontier had 4, according to FAA data
Spirit shut down earlier this year, after rising fuel costs derailed its planned bankruptcy restructuring
Spirit filed for bankruptcy in August 2025, one year after a previous bankruptcy failed to turn its business around
(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Nick Zieminski and Aurora Ellis)
((Dietrich.Knauth@thomsonreuters.com;))
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