JetBlue Exec: Virgin America Was a Nice-To Have But Not Worth $2.6 Billion
Skift Take
JetBlue management is obviously upset that it couldn't consummate the deal with Virgin America because of the key importance of transcontinental expansion. But JetBlue didn't want a merger at any price and now it is going to play hardball in trying to steal away Virgin America's potentially alienated customers.
JetBlue's talks to acquire Virgin America were the New York-based airline's first-ever merger discussions in its 16-year history but the $2.6 billion in cash that Alaska Airlines ended up paying to acquire Virgin America "didn't really make a lot of sense for us."
That was the take of Marty St. George, JetBlue's executive vice president, commercial & planning, who sat down with Skift at the airline's headquarters in Queens, New York, yesterday and discussed JetBlue's thinking about its ill-fated merger talks with Virgin America.
“We’ve been in business for 16 years. We have never looked at any inorganic growth. So this is the first time we’ve had any conversation about the possibility of merging with another airline," St. George said.
That statement would lend credence to JetBlue's denials in 2012 that it had any interest in a marriage with American Airlines despite much speculation at the time to the contrary.
In recent weeks, though, with Virgin America up for sale, both Alaska and
