Brooke Sutherland, Columnist

JetBlue CEO Leaves a Deal Headache for Successor

Joanna Geraghty, who will assume the top job next month, faces the prospect of taking on an enormous amount of debt to buy Spirit Airlines, which is set to lose money for the foreseeable future.

January 10, 2024 at 4:06 PM UTC

By Brooke Sutherland

Brooke Sutherland is Bloomberg News' Boston bureau chief and writes the Industrial Strength Newsletter. She was previously a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies and an M&A reporter for Bloomberg News.

Joanna Geraghty will take over at JetBlue in the middle of an acquisition.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

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It’s unusual for chief executive officers to depart soon after completing a transformational deal. Most like to stick around long enough to complete the integration efforts and see their strategic vision carried out. It’s practically unheard of for a CEO to leave before his signature transaction is even completed. But JetBlue Airways Corp.’s $7.6 billion takeover of Spirit Airlines Inc. is still very much in the air and could continue to be so when CEO Robin Hayes steps down on Feb. 12.

That creates an interesting conundrum for his successor, Joanna Geraghty, the company’s president and chief operating officer. Does she really want to start her tenure by taking on an enormous amount of debt to buy an airline that’s set to lose money for the foreseeable future as demand for air travel wanes?