JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines have applied with the US Department of Transportation to received more than a dozen newly available take-off and landing slots at Newark Liberty International airport.
The airlines are seeking 16 daily slots given up by Southwest Airlines when that carrier stopped serving Newark in 2019.
The DOT had initially not intended to redistribute the slots following Southwest’s retreat. But the agency has now changed course, citing a court decision and presidential order.


The slots are for take-offs and landings during the daily peak-travel period between 14:00 to 21:59.
Newly released documents reveal that JetBlue and Spirit applied for those slots earlier this year.
New York-based JetBlue submitted its application in June, the airline says in a 4 August letter to the DOT’s deputy administrator Bradley Mims.
JetBlue says expanding its service at Newark would bring “much-needed low-fair competition to one of the foremost fortress airline hubs in the world”.