JetBlue Airways has won final approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration to take over 22 takeoff and landing slots at New York LaGuardia that previously belonged to Spirit Airlines. The FAA posted its decision on Tuesday afternoon, 6 October 2026, clearing a deal under which JetBlue is paying $58.5 million for the slots from Spirit's debtors, according to PaxEx.Aero and Investing.com.
The approval comes with conditions. JetBlue cannot lease or trade any of the 22 slots to another airline until after April 2028, and the FAA also gave the carrier a temporary break from LaGuardia's strict usage rules while it builds up the new flying.
What the FAA decided
LaGuardia is one of the most tightly controlled airports in the United States. Airlines need FAA-administered slots to schedule flights there, and those slots rarely change hands. The Spirit slots became available after the ultra-low-cost carrier ceased passenger operations and moved into liquidation earlier this year, with the rights sold through a court-supervised process.
The FAA first set out its position in a tentative notice published in the Federal Register on 31 August 2026. In that notice the agency said the transfer would not increase the number of operations at LaGuardia and found no adverse effect on safety. It also noted that after the transfer JetBlue would still hold less than five percent of all slot interests at the airport, does not codeshare on LaGuardia flights with any carrier above that five-percent threshold, and is not owned by a company that is.
That matters because the FAA has a long record of steering scarce slots toward smaller, independent carriers. In the tentative notice the agency said allocating slots to carriers with limited access to congested markets "directly serves the public interest by lowering average market fares, enhancing consumer choice, and disciplining legacy carrier pricing power."
Conditions on the slots
Under the final ruling, JetBlue cannot sell or lease the slots to another airline until after April 2028. The tentative notice went further on sales, saying that while JetBlue may trade or lease the slots after that date, it is precluded from selling them outright in the future.
Some public commenters asked the FAA to require that any future transfer go only to ultra-low-cost carriers, and to extend JetBlue's obligation to use the slots to five years. PaxEx.Aero reports that the FAA rejected both requests. The agency said its April 2028 limit "goes further than prior exemptions in which FAA did not attach any restrictions on the transfer of purchased slots," and that requiring JetBlue to operate the slots through April 2028 is enough to make sure travellers get the benefit of the added service and price competition.
The FAA also said any future trade or lease would still need its approval, with JetBlue remaining the holder of the slots. If JetBlue later tries to move the slots beyond the current slot order, the agency would weigh whether that is in the public interest, likely including the impact on competition.
A ramp-up waiver
JetBlue asked for relief from LaGuardia's use-or-lose rule until April 2027, and the FAA agreed. Normally an airline must use its slots at a minimum rate or risk losing them. The waiver gives JetBlue time to find aircraft, crews and schedules for the extra flights, whether that means new markets or more frequencies on existing routes.
None of the reports on the decision detail which routes JetBlue plans to fly with the additional LaGuardia slots.
Why it matters
Twenty-two slots is a meaningful block at an airport where growth is almost impossible. For JetBlue, which is working to return to profitability, LaGuardia's short-haul business market close to Manhattan is valuable, and the deal lets it add flights from a hub where it already competes with much larger rivals. For travellers, the FAA's conditions are meant to keep those slots in use by an independent carrier for at least the next few years rather than letting them be sold on.
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