It was recently decided who would purchase Spirit Airlines between Frontier Airlines and JetBlue Airways. According to Click Orlando, the deal with Frontier Airlines fell apart, and now JetBlue Airways will be purchasing the company.
What's Happening:
- JetBlue Airways has agreed to buy Spirit Airlines for $3.8 billion, which will create the nation's fifth-largest airline.
- The agreement on Thursday ended a month-long bidding war and one day after Spirit attempted to merge with Frontier but it fell apart.
- Spirit Airlines regularly ends up being either worse or close to worst when airlines are ranked, and some customers wonder if that's going to improve.
- Both Spirit and Frontier have low fares on travel, although they tack on more fees for any extras.
- JetBlue and Spirit will continue to operate independently until the agreement is approved by regulators and Spirit shareholders, with their separate loyalty programs and customer accounts.
- It is said that the process and transaction should be completed no later than the first half of 2024.
What They're Saying:
- “A lot has been said over the last few months obviously, always with our stakeholders in mind,” Christie said on CNBC. “We have been listening to the folks at JetBlue, and they have a lot of good thoughts on their plans for that.”
- “I think it’s going to be a positive change. Anytime I ever flown JetBlue it’s been a better experience than spirit,” Nadia Mirovaya said.
- “When we first got here, we were waiting in one line to drop off our baggage. Then they moved us to another line that we stood in for a long time then they moved us back to this line, so we were stressing out that we weren’t going to drop our bags off in time and miss our flight, " Mirovaya said.
- “Spirit is going to disappear, and with it, its low cost structure,” said William McGee of the anti-merger American Economic Liberties Project. “Once Spirit is absorbed (into JetBlue), there is no question that fares are going to go up.”