Spirit Airlines CEO says industry is like a 'rigged game,' US consumers are 'long-term losers'

Spirit stockholders dropped the potential Frontier merger in favor of the JetBlue merger simply because the JetBlue merger would have meant a larger payout for those stockholders. When everything fell through, the stock went down 75%. Industry analysts, and people who understand how things work in mergers, knew that the Frontier deal was certainly more likely to go through.

As if the "short term" prospects are better.

He does make a solid point. How is it that the government allowed the "big three" to conclude their mega-mergers and now, all of a sudden, the merger of two modest regionals will somehow have a negative effect on competition.