Frontier Airlines Offers to Buy Spirit Airlines, Again

Frontier Airlines is again trying to join forces with Spirit Airlines, three years after the companies failed to complete a proposed merger.

On Wednesday, Frontier said it was willing to pay $2.1 billion in stock and cash for Spirit, a deal that would unite the nation’s two largest budget carriers and could reshape competition in the heavily consolidated U.S. airline industry. But Spirit said it had rejected the offer, which was far less than the $2.9 billion merger that the airlines had agreed to in early 2022, while saying it would welcome further negotiations with Frontier.

Spirit walked away from the earlier Frontier deal in favor of a higher counteroffer from JetBlue Airways, which the Justice Department successfully blocked in federal court last year. After a string of setbacks, including a failure to renegotiate its debt, Spirit filed for bankruptcy in November.

Frontier, which made its latest offer to Spirit and its creditors on Jan. 7, promoted a merger as beneficial both to the companies and to consumers.

“As a combined airline, we would be positioned to offer more options and deeper savings, as well as an enhanced travel experience with more reliable service,” Barry Biffle, Frontier’s chief executive, said in a statement on Wednesday.

In a securities filing, Spirit said it told Frontier on Tuesday that it would stick with its plan to restructure its finances in bankruptcy court, but that it remained open to future offers.