We’ve warned of this over and over. Our antiquated antitrust laws are raising costs to consumers and stifling innovation. The dumbest restraint on a merger by the Biden admin. was blocking the proposed marriage between two discount airlines: JetBlue and Spirit.  Last year, Justice won in court and hailed the deal’s termination as “a victory for U.S. travelers who deserve lower prices and better choices.”

Last November, Spirit Airlines declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy and it’s just now issued a warning in its new SEC filing that it may not last 12 months as a going concern.

The Biden antitrust lawyers talked of their desire to promote competition, in reality their hobbling of smaller competitors to the Big Four airlines only made those behemoths bigger. At a minimum, Spirit will now get much smaller. It may go out of business entirely.  Consumers and workers will pay in the form of higher fares and fewer jobs. The shareholders got shafted too.

Great, everyone loses except the antitrust lawyers.

We have here a perfect lesson for new FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson and Trump Justice Antitrust Chief Gail Slater, as they contemplate reviving disastrous Progressive Era antitrust theories.