Flight attendants’ union supports Frontier-Spirit merger

WASHINGTON (AP) — The biggest U.S. union for flight attendants is backing Frontier Airlines’ bid to buy Spirit Airlines. The Association of Flight Attendants announced its position Tuesday. The union represents crews at both airlines, and says it has a deal that will protect flight attendants from furloughs during the merger process. JetBlue Airways is also trying to buy Spirit, and flight attendants at JetBlue are represented by a different union. Mergers in the heavily unionized airline industry are often complicated by difficulty in combining separate work forces, so the agreement announced Tuesday could remove one source of potential friction in Frontier’s bid for Spirit.