{"id":40849,"date":"2022-05-02T10:59:51","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T16:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/spirit-still-prefers-bid-from-frontier-airlines-over-jetblue\/"},"modified":"2022-05-02T16:59:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T16:59:51","slug":"spirit-still-prefers-bid-from-frontier-airlines-over-jetblue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/spirit-still-prefers-bid-from-frontier-airlines-over-jetblue\/","title":{"rendered":"Spirit still prefers bid from Frontier Airlines over JetBlue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A Frontier Airlines aircraft flying over Gloster City, N.J., approaches Philadelphia International Airport on Oct. 2. Spirit Airlines\u2019 board still supports Frontier Airlines\u2019 $2.9 billion takeover bid for the airline, saying it determined JetBlue\u2019s competing $3.6 billion offer isn\u2019t a superior proposal. (Matt Rourke\/Associated Press file)<\/span>Matt Rourke<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Spirit Airlines said Monday that it still supports Frontier Airlines\u2019 $2.9 billion takeover bid for the airline, saying it was more likely to win regulatory approval than JetBlue\u2019s competing $3.6 billion offer.<\/p>\n

Frontier serves Durango-La Plata County Airport, with destinations in Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Dallas. Nonstop service to Denver is available Thursdays and Sundays. Nonstop service to Las Vegas <\/a>is available Thursdays and Sundays beginning June 9.<\/p>\n

Frontier Airlines offered twice-weekly flights between Durango and Las Vegas from June until March 5. The airline unexpectedly announced in February it was canceling the flight. At the time, Aviation Director Tony Vicari said demand wasn\u2019t robust enough to support the Las Vegas flights.<\/p>\n

Frontier previously announced it would offer nonstop Saturday service between Durango and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport beginning May 28, but that route has been removed from Frontier\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n

Spirit said antitrust regulators are unlikely to approve JetBlue\u2019s offer because of JetBlue\u2019s alliance with American Airlines<\/a> in the Northeast, a deal that the Justice Department is suing to block.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe struggle to understand how JetBlue can believe\u201d that the Justice Department or a court would let JetBlue strike a deal with American, then buy Spirit, eliminating the nation\u2019s largest low-cost airline, the Spirit board said in a letter to JetBlue directors.<\/p>\n

Shares of Miramar, Florida-based Spirit sank 9.36% in trading Monday. New York-based JetBlue\u2019s stock gained 2.63%, while shares of Denver-based Frontier fell 3.77%.<\/p>\n

The development was a reversal from last month, when Spirit said that after speaking with financial and legal advisers, its directors believed JetBlue\u2019s offer could \u201creasonably\u201d turn out to be the better of the two deals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Spirit said its board continues to back the bid made by Frontier in February and views it as the best way to maximize value. The airline anticipates a deal with Frontier closing in the second half of the year.<\/p>\n

The JetBlue-American cooperative venture in Boston and New York, called the Northeast Alliance or NEA, was opposed by Spirit and other competitors long before Frontier\u2019s February bid to buy Spirit.<\/p>\n

JetBlue indicated late last week that it made a \u201ccommitment to divest assets\u201d to win regulatory approval, but Spirit\u2019s board said Monday that the revised offer is unlikely to appease regulators because it \u201cmakes clear that JetBlue is unwilling to terminate\u201d the partnership with American.<\/p>\n

A Spirit-Frontier merger would combine the nation\u2019s two largest budget airlines and create the No. 5 U.S. carrier. While Spirit and Frontier are similar \u201cultra low-cost\u201d carriers, JetBlue operates on a business model that is more like the big four \u2014 American, Delta, United and Southwest. JetBlue would absorb Spirit and eliminate a budget airline that regulators believe helps keep ticket prices lower.<\/p>\n

JetBlue on Monday repeated the argument that its offer is better for Spirit shareholders: It would pay them $33 per share in cash compared with Frontier\u2019s cash-and-stock offer worth $22.42 per share, and JetBlue\u2019s offer was sweetened to include a $200 million breakup fee if the deal falters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope the Spirit board will now recognize that ours is clearly a superior proposal and engage with us more constructively than they have to date,\u201d said JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes.<\/p>\n

\"Frontier
Frontier CEO Barry Biffle. (Kathleen Lavine\/Kelly Photography via AP)<\/span>onset<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Frontier CEO Barry Biffle said last week that regulatory review of a Frontier-Spirit combination \u201cis already well underway and many months ahead of any alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

When an analyst pressed Biffle on why Frontier wasn\u2019t campaigning more aggressively for its bid, he said, \u201cWe have been pretty clear\u201d about how Frontier views the benefits of its offer. \u201cI don\u2019t think we have to keep repeating it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frontier has lower but better offer, Spirit says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1978,915,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-airlines","tag-durango-la-plata-county-airport","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40849"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}