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Commentary By Jarrett Dieterle

Spirit’s Collapse Shows Why Bigger Companies Aren’t Always a Bad Thing

Economics Infrastructure & Transportation

Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images

What if mergers are good for competition?

Spirit Airlines’ sudden announcement that it would cease operations left tens of thousands of passengers without flights and some 17,000 employees without jobs.

Political wrangling has since begun as to who or what was responsible for the airline’s collapse. And while pinning the blame solely on one cause is far too simplistic, Spirit’s demise shows how misguided antitrust policy can exacerbate America’s affordability crisis.

The straw that broke the camel’s back for Spirit appears to have been the recent spike in jet fuel prices, a result of the war in Iran. This unexpected price shock pushed the company, which had been struggling for years, over the solvency cliff.

But the road to Spirit’s collapse begins long before this.

Continue reading the entire piece here at the Daily Wire

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C. Jarrett Dieterle is a legal policy fellow for the Manhattan Institute.