Frontier Issues Open Letter to Spirit Shareholders Ahead of Vote

The Denver-based carrier is trying to sway Spirit decision makers to merge with it instead of JetBlue.

Michael Wildes

Monday, June 27, 2022 at 04:09 PM ET

Verified

Frontier and Spirit announced plans to merge in February. [Courtesy: Frontier Airlines]

Key Takeaways:

Frontier sweetened its merger offer for Spirit Airlines and issued an open letter to Spirit shareholders to finalize its case over rival bidder JetBlue.
Frontier argues its merger with Spirit offers greater shareholder value and stronger regulatory approval prospects, dismissing JetBlue's bid as "illusory" due to existing antitrust concerns.
Frontier emphasizes JetBlue's current antitrust scrutiny over its Northeast Alliance as a "dead end" for a Spirit merger, while claiming a combined Frontier-Spirit would enhance competition as the fifth-largest U.S. carrier.
Spirit shareholders are set to vote on Thursday, with leading proxy firms ISS and Glass Lewis recommending the Frontier merger.

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After sweetening its offer last Friday to merge with Spirit Airlines (NYSE: SAVE), Frontier (NASDAQ: ULCC) issued an open letter to Spirit’s shareholders to finalize its case for why they should choose Frontier over JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU).

Frontier and Spirit announced plans to merge in February before JetBlue decided it wanted Spirit for itself. This has caused much back and forth, particularly between Spirit and JetBlue. Spirit described JetBlue’s offer as “unsolicited” and argued that it wasn’t likely that a deal between them would close due to possible antitrust scrutiny.