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Aviation Week has reported that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has tentatively approved JetBlue Airways’ purchase of LaGuardia Airport (LGA) slots that became available following the collapse of Spirit Airlines. This deal for 22 slots will be worth $58.5 million, with the carrier narrowly beating Frontier Airlines’ $57.5 million bid to win them. Confirmation of the purchase awaits 20 days of the FAA accepting comments on the matter.
It isn’t just slots that companies are clamoring for in the wake of Spirit’s collapse. Alphabet Inc.’s Google AI had been attempting to purchase the defunct carrier’s business data for $10 million. These AI firms are increasingly using corporate data to train their models. However, the deal has been delayed because Spirit’s cabin crew have submitted a formal objection to the sale, as reported by Yahoo Finance.
JetBlue’s Purchase Of Spirit’s LGA Slots
The FAA has placed a Federal Register notice on public inspection. In this notice, the FAAexplains that it has tentatively approved JetBlue’s $58.5 million acquisition of 12 departure and ten arrival slots. The notice will be officially published on August 31. After this, individuals and businesses will have 20 days to leave comments on the matter.
If JetBlue is able to acquire the 22 slots, it will have to follow certain conditions. Most importantly, the carrier won’t be allowed to lease them to another airline until April 2028. JetBlue will also be forbidden from selling them outright. The FAA will have the authority to withdraw JetBlue’s access to the slots if it misuses them.
The FAA has said:
“Approving the sale of Spirit’s 22 slots to JetBlue ensures that scarce public airspace resources are returned to active commercial service under a proven low-fare business model. [The] FAA tentatively finds that the proposed transaction offers important benefits to the public.”
Simple Flying has also approached JetBlue for additional comment.
The Slots Will Significantly Increase JetBlue’s Presence At LaGuardia
These 22 slots will increase JetBlue’s LaGuardia portfolio by 71%, rising from 31 to 53. The airline has said it will use the slots to introduce a further 12 daily round-trips from LaGuardia, with these new routes coming into effect by 2027.
Despite the additional slots, JetBlue will remain a small fish in a very large pond. Previously, the airline held 2.7% of LGA’s 1,141 carrier-held slots. This will now increase to 4.6%. That number is significant because a five percent share used to be the threshold for identifying airlines with a limited presence at airports like LaGuardia, which have limited slots. Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines dominate, with 838 slots, 73.4% of the total availability. These legacy airlines’ access to slots has led them to gain a far higher passenger share. Data from OAG’s Schedules Analyzer for summer 2026 reveals that Delta has a 44.6% share of the total capacity.
The tentative conclusion drawn by the FAA is that granting JetBlue additional slots will enable it to provide meaningful competition to the dominant incumbents, hopefully reducing prices and raising standards. We’ll have to wait until JetBlue achieves total use of these slots in 2027 before we can cast judgment about whether this conclusion is correct.
Google AI’s Failed Bid For Spirit’s Data
Analyzing the fate of Spirit’s slots only tells part of the story. The collapsed carrier also holds an exceptional amount of value in corporate data, which Alphabet Inc. had attempted to purchase for $10 million for AI training purposes. This data includes worker emails, spreadsheets, operations records, and chat messages. The $10 million offered is a drop in the ocean considering Alphabet Inc.’s 2026 AI infrastructure spending forecast of up to $205 billion. In a triumph for Spirit’s former cabin crew, their union has delayed the sale.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA has argued that the data sets are sufficiently linked to identify the individuals contained within them. As Spirit looks for ways to sell off assets in bankruptcy, it appears that this data will not be available to it.
