Tag Archives: JetBlue

Policies Have Consequences

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On Monday, Issues & Insights posted an article about the end of Spirit Airlines. We need to give credit where credit is due. The credit for the bankruptcy of Spirit Airlines goes to then Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

The article reports:

If there’s a lesson to be learned from the collapse of Spirit Airlines, it is that today’s Democratic Party should never be in charge of anything.

Does that seem like a stretch? Not when you consider the facts.

Four years ago, Spirit and JetBlue started talking about merging operations. Spirit was struggling to stay afloat, thanks in part to the massive run-up in inflation under President Joe Biden. The merger would have been a lifeline to Spirit and would have ensured low-cost competition survived.

But Democrats — led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren — decided that they knew better. Warren pressured then Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Biden administration to stop it, “expressing serious concerns about the proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines.”

She bragged in early 2024 that she “has led the fight to ensure antitrust laws are enforced across the economy to prevent mergers that will reduce competition, jeopardize fair markets, and harm consumers.”

Her leadership paid off. Biden’s Transportation and Justice Departments teamed up to block the merger — claiming it would cost travelers $1 billion a year. Then a district judge in Boston sided with Biden.

All of them claimed the same thing. That they were doing this on behalf of air travelers.

Buttigieg said in 2023 that “it’s important to make sure that passengers have choices” and that they “have access to low fares.”

When the companies dropped the merger plans in the face of these assaults, Warren cheered, calling it “a Biden win for flyers.”

A win? Tell that to the 17,000 employees who just lost their jobs, the travelers who have paid for Spirit flights they’ll never take, and those families faced with a huge spike in travel costs.

The article notes:

Not surprisingly, these same Democrats are trying to pin the blame for Spirit’s collapse on President Donald Trump, saying, as Warren put it, “spiking fuel prices from Trump’s war was the nail in the coffin for twice-bankrupted Spirit airline.”

But that’s a lie. Anyone not blinded by leftist ideology could see at the time that killing the merger was the nail in Spirit’s coffin.

Here’s how the Heritage Foundation’s EJ Antoni put it back in March 2024:

Without the merger, Spirit is all but condemned to death, and investors know it, selling off the company’s stock, which hit a record low after the plug was pulled on consolidating with JetBlue. The ratings agency Fitch downgraded Spirit’s credit rating, citing default as a real possibility, meaning the airline may soon be unable to pay its bills.

With operational losses, over $1 billion in bonds coming due soon, and the evaporation of available equity from the stock plummeting, Spirit’s collapse seems like a fait accompli.

(Besides, even if we disagreed with his plan, Trump at least tried to find a way to keep Spirit afloat.)

This can, however, be a clarifying moment for voters before the midterms — if Republicans are smart enough to seize it.

Voters, take note!

The Ghost Of The Obama Administration

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Breitbart posted an article today about trade agreements between the United States and Qatar. It seems that there are air trade agreements that Qatar is violating. Those violations were allowed under the Obama administration. Qatar would like to see those violations continue under the Trump administration.

The article reports:

Open Skies agreements are executive agreements, similar to treaties, between the United States and other nations regarding international air travel, designed to foster free-market competition and a level playing field for international flights. From trade, to commerce, to tourism, Open Skies requires each participating country to provide non-preferential access to their airspace, and requires airline companies to compete against each other to in terms of offerings, quality of service, and low prices, without government subsidies.

Breitbart News has previously reported on several Arab nations that were violating their Open Skies agreements with the United States, illegally subsidizing three Persian Gulf carriers. The Obama administration did nothing, and a group of NeverTrumpers tried to convince President Trump to do nothing as well.

President Trump’s team had other ideas. In January 2018, the Department of State announced a deal with Qatar to end violations involving Qatar Airways, and in May 2018, Secretary Mike Pompeo announced a deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) addressing the remaining airlines, Etihad Airways, and Emirates Airline. These were hailed as significant victories for American workers and the president’s America First agenda.

But it appears there may still be trouble with Qatar. And someone from the Obama administration has been implicated, apparently operating behind the scenes.

In late April of this year, the CEOs of all three of the top U.S. airline companies – American, Delta, and United – published an open letter to President Trump as an ad in the New York Times and New York Post, entitled, “President Trump: Please enforce our trade agreements to support U.S. airline workers.”

The article then goes on to explain the involvement of someone from the Obama administration in this matter:

Then three other airline companies – FedEx, Jetblue, and Atlas Air – sent a letter defending Qatar to Pompeo and also Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The April 16 letter pushes back against “false claims” and touts the need “to set the record straight.”

However, according to materials Breitbart News reviewed, it looks like someone forgot to remove the metadata from the document, showing who wrote the document. Because the metadata shows the letter sent by FedEx, JetBlue, and Atlas Air was actually written by Jenny Rosenberg.

Rosenberg is a lobbyist. But she formerly served as assistant administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and at another time served as acting assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs at the U.S. Department of Transportation – both stints during the Obama administration.

In other words, unless this document is a complete forgery or one of the CEOs’ personal secretaries happens to be named Jenny Rosenberg, an Obama White House political appointee is ghostwriting letters trying to persuade President Trump to ignore purported trade violations.

When the CEOs of American companies are asking the president to stand up for American companies against foreign interests who are undercutting American workers, someone who formerly held “senior executive positions” – that is how her company webpage biography puts it – to advance Barack Obama’s policy priorities is seeking to influence the President Trump’s White House, trying to persuade the current president that what is happening is consistent with his America First agenda, and that his Cabinet should ignore claims to the contrary.

If you are going to do something dishonest, it is wise not to leave your electronic fingerprints on it.

Disturbing On Many Levels

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By now we have all heard the story of Matthew Lasner and his husband, who were removed from a JetBlue flight for harassing Ivanka Trump. However, I doubt that you have heard the entire story. A website I am an unfamiliar with, Heavy.com, posted details of some information I have seen referred to elsewhere.

Heavy.com posted a tweet:

The intention here was to harass another passenger on the plane. How noble. It gets even worse. According to Heavy.com, and other sources, Mr.. Lasner is a professor at Hunter College. What kind of example is he setting for his students? What is he teaching his students? According to the article, Matthew Lasner is married to Daniel Goldstein, a New York Attorney. Mr. Goldstein was holding their child as he was yelling at Ivanka Trump. Great example to set for your child.

The Washington Examiner also carried the story yesterday, noting that it had been sanitized in the mainstream media.

The Washington Examiner reported:

Lasner later deleted the tweets, and he appears to have suspended his Twitter account altogether following the incident.

JetBlue later put out a statement reading, “The decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly. If the crew determines that a customer is causing conflict on the aircraft, the customer will be asked to deplane, especially if the crew feels the situation runs the risk of escalation during flight. In this instance, our team worked to re-accommodate the party on the next available flight.”

I would not have been so accommodating.

Some of the mainstream media reports of the incident are included in The Washington Examiner article:

From the Associated Press: “Man says he and husband removed from JetBlue flight after ‘expressing displeasure’ that Ivanka Trump was aboard.”

From Yahoo News: “Man kicked off JetBlue flight for questioning why Ivanka Trump was on it.”

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution: “Passengers kicked off flight after run-in with Ivanka Trump.”

From the Washington Post: “Passenger who confronted Ivanka Trump gets kicked off Jet Blue flight.”

I can’t remember anyone ever doing anything similar to any of the Obama family members when they were out in the public–the girls at concerts or shopping. This is disgraceful. There need to be serious consequences for this sort of behavior. You can disagree with anyone politically for any reason, but you do not have the right to harass them or their family.