The Federal Aviation Administration has given tentative approval for JetBlue Airways to buy 22 LaGuardia slots from Spirit Airlines in a $58.5 million deal linked to Spirit’s wind-down and bankruptcy asset sale process. If completed, the transfer would lift JetBlue’s LaGuardia slot total from 31 to 53 and could support about 10 additional daily round trips at the New York airport.
The package covers 12 departure slots and 10 arrival slots at the slot-constrained airport. The FAA opened the request after JetBlue and Spirit filed it in late July and framed the transfer as serving the public interest by putting scarce LaGuardia capacity back into active low-fare service.
The tentative approval still faces a public comment period that closes on 21 September before the agency can move to final action. Under the proposal, JetBlue would be barred from trading or leasing the slots until April 2028, while relief from the usual use-or-lose rules would run through April 2027.