With Frontier deal dead, Spirit ponders sale to JetBlue

By DAVID KOENIG
AP Airlines Writer

Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines are abandoning their merger proposal, which opens the way for JetBlue Airways to strike a deal for Spirit. Frontier and Spirit agreed Wednesday to drop their merger even while Spirit shareholders were still voting on it. It was apparent that despite the support of Spirit’s board, shareholders were prepared to reject the Frontier deal. Spirit, the largest budget carrier in the United States, says it’s still in discussions with JetBlue and expects to have more to say in the near future. The Frontier offer was worth more than $2.6 billion in cash and stock, far short of JetBlue’s all-cash bid of $3.7 billion.