By Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK, July 20 (Reuters) – JetBlue 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)
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