An agreement has been reached between two smaller airlines to form the fifth largest airline company in the United States.
JetBlue Airways reached a deal today to acquire Spirit Airlines. This came hours after officials with Spirit rejected a previous plan to merge with Frontier Airlines. The deal is worth $3.8 billion and JetBlue will pay $33.50 a share. If approved by regulators, it would leave Frontier as the largest discount air travel carrier in the United States.
In April, Spirit had announced plans to merge with Frontier, but JetBlue made an all-cash bid for the discount airliner. The two continued to work on counter offers until yesterday, when negotiations for the originally planned merger fell apart. JetBlue has plans to refresh Spirit’s planes in their style, adding more legroom and even in-flight entertainment.
Spirit, based out of Miramar, Florida, flies to various vacation destinations across the United States, the Caribbean Latin America and South America. One of Spirit’s hubs is in Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe. No word yet on how that deal will affect air travel from there.
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