- Frontier Airlines revealed a new offer to buy rival Spirit on Wednesday.
- Spirit rejected the offer, calling it “woefully insufficient financially.”
- Spirit entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November last year.
Spirit Airlines has rejected a new takeover offer from rival budget carrier Frontier.
In the statement, Frontier said it had provided a “compelling proposal” to buy Spirit, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November.
“This proposal reflects a compelling opportunity that will result in more value than Spirit’s standalone plan by creating a stronger low fare airline,” Frontier chairman Bill Franke said in a press release.
Spirit rejected Frontier’s offer, it said in a filing on Wednesday, calling it “woefully insufficient financially.” The company said it aimed to exit its bankruptcy proceedings in the first quarter of 2025.
Frontier said a merger would help create “long-term viability” for both airlines to “compete more effectively and enter new markets at scale.”
It said a deal could be financed by issuing new Frontier debt and stock.
Frontier and Spirit had previously held talks about merging in 2022, but that deal collapsed when JetBlue made a higher offer to Spirit. The Spirit-JetBlue deal was then called off last year after being blocked by a federal judge.
This is a developing story.
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