https://www.ch-aviation.com/news/146025-frontier-exploring-new-bid-for-spirit-airlines-report


Frontier Airlines (F9, Denver International) is considering making a renewed bid for Spirit Airlines (NK, Fort Lauderdale International), according to the Wall Street Journal, which reports that new merger discussions are at an early stage and that a deal may not materialise.

Citing "people familiar with the matter," the WSJ said that if a deal is reached it would likely be part of debt restructuring during a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection procedure. Spirit has struggled to turn a profit recently and is reportedly discussing strategies with bondholder advisers to address upcoming debt maturities, including possible bankruptcy protection.

If this happens ol’ Blue will be one of the last small fish swimming in a big sea. Hopefully the east coast airports don’t sink below sea level anytime soon.

 

We spent half a billion dollars failing to get Spirit. We end up weaker as a result, trying to save cash, shrink to profitability, downgrades, displacements and in the end Spirit may end up bigger and stronger than us if they hook up with F9. I geniunley don't see how we do much of anything unless someone buys us or wants to merge with us at this point.

 

Maybe if we double the offer we’ll get em this time. What else are we to do with the money we raised recently. In all seriousness, our management is too in luv with the company to see someone else come in. Have I seen changes, yes. Though not enough to give us that competitive edge edge today and what would be the post merger environment of both ULCCs and AK/HA.
What makes me laugh is the breakdown of the dollar they show us. The first bit is wages and salaries and what they brought up but what about the 26% in “other” expenses. If I were to reduce costs I think the rather uncategorized portion is where I’ll take a look at first.

 

Agreed, but we need to wait a few years for AS/HA to settle down and SWA to stabilize with their activist investor. Also need to show we can actually make profits (on a smaller route structure than before) and then we might see a merger.

Nightmare scenario is the profits never materialize and/or SWA merges with AS, once again leaving us without a dance partner with less and less relevancy in our “core” markets

 

I mean I don't disagree with what you said, but at the same time NK's (and the current ULCC market) current problems aren't going away anytime soon with a combined F9/NK.

 

This is my biased opinion talking, but we're on too similar a path with AS/HA for it to not make sense. SWA barely wants to do assigned seating.

 

the real question is, are JB’s problems going away anytime soon?

Everyone is waiting for your answer.

 

^^^This^^^ It’s only a matter of time before AS/HA/B6 merge (if F9/NK merge). It may also be dependent on the next administration, and of course the C-Suite ego’s on which brand name survives/rules. But I have a feeling the B6 C-Suite would be forced to take a back seat to AS leadership.

The only wildcard might be for a couple of activist investors to force a WN/B6 merger to force B6 to larger scale, and bring WN into the next level of premium offerings, trans-Atlantic, and fleet diversity with all of Boeing’s issues.

Will be an interesting few years to say the least.

 

Why do we “need” to show we can make a profit? NK and HA didn’t have to do that.

 

Fair point, that’s more of a management/shareholder concern so we can get a better price in the merger and/or the JB C-suite can have a job in the new company.