Spirit Airlines rejected Frontier Airlines’s second merger bid, opting to continue on its current path to emerge from bankruptcy. The low-cost airline filed for bankruptcy last year after the Justice Department blocked a proposed merger with JetBlue.

The two airlines are the largest budget carriers in the US and any deal between the two could reshape the American airline industry.

Spirit, which filed for bankruptcy protection last year, says it has rejected the new Frontier overture but would be open to a higher offer.

Spirit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2024, six months after a proposed merger with JetBlue collapsed.

The South Florida-based budget airlines has rejected another one of Frontier's attempts to combine. Find out the details.

Frontier Airlines is attempting for a second time to merge with the now bankrupt Spirit Airlines, which declared bankruptcy late last year as budget airlines struggle.

After months of playing coy, Frontier Group Holdings acknowledged on 29 January having "significant interest" in creating the USA's fifth-largest through the acquisition of ailing ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines.

Denver-based Frontier Airlines says it’s ready to keep talking after bankrupt Spirit Airlines rejected its offer to merge.

Frontier is making an offer to acquire the beleaguered Spirit Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy in November.

Frontier Airlines is making another offer to merge with bankrupt Spirit Airlines, less than two years after a previous plan fell through.

Frontier said a merger would be better for long-term viability, making the combination the fifth largest airline in the United States and producing at least $600 million in operational savings. It argued that the deal would offer greater value to Spirit’s stakeholders than the company’s current restructuring plan.