JetBlue Chases Spirit in Last Airline Deal Standing
An existing agreement to combine Frontier and Spirit makes more sense, but there’s probably only one more mega-merger left for the industry.
JetBlue is being sued to unwind its marketing alliance with American Airlines. Now it wants to buy Spirit.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
JetBlue Airways Corp. and Spirit Airlines Inc. would be a match made in weirdness, but those are the kinds of deals that happen in tightly consolidated industries where there’s at best one more mega-merger yet to come.
Spirit confirmed late Tuesday that JetBlue had offered to acquire it for $33 a share in cash, or about $7.2 billion including the assumption of debt and operating leases. JetBlue’s out-of-left-field offer presents Spirit with an alternative to the merger with Frontier Airlines Inc. that it had agreed to in February. Frontier’s parent company is offering a mix of cash and shares, the value of which has shrunk since the announcement amid investor concerns about the airline industry’s ability to cope with rising fuel prices. As of the close of trading on Monday, Frontier’s offer was worth about $24 a share.