Spirit Airlines Rejects JetBlue's Hostile Takeover

It’s up to the shareholders, not the board. You act as if this ends the “hostile takeover” bid which seems to indicate a fundamental misunderstanding of what is happening. I suggest more research on your part.

I will admit to being a big fan of B6 since I started flying them close to 20 years out of BOS. Always loved the legroom, in-seat entertainment, free snacks and WiFi. Have flown Mint a dozen times which never gets old.

They need to get their house in order. The public is not so enamored with flying them these days. I understand the strategy of taking over Spirit but just no. Spirit’s board is right on. Not gonna fly, Focus on your operations and culture first, B6.

I hope Breeze keeps expanding with more flights out of PVD. Simple pricing and reasonable up charge for “Nicest” seat.

Lucky... are you aware of Indigo? You understand what is going on here? You know that both Frontier and Spirit are part of Indigo? There is so much corruption internally with Spirit, and it seems the general public has no idea. Spirit is wrong...look how media can spin facts. Spirit and Frontier overlap in 48% of their network. How is this good for anyone except for the few people at Indigo? Pilots lose out on a ton of money...shareholders lose out... two LCC;s becoming one absolutely destroys competition where in B6 and NK merge you still have plenty of LCCs that can compete. The media can twist the minds and the facts for all. Jetblue has had their issues but the media has picked on them hard. They do have the best economy product, they do have excellent service once onboard. The company is making adjustments to fix operations and even hiring at mass rates while reducing their schedule in order to become a much more reliable airline.

A combined NK/F9 just looks good on paper... and for some reason the media likes it even though these 2 are the true worst airlines in the US, not B6.

And why would the shareholders reject an offer that is about 40% more lucrative for them than Frontier’s?

“ takeover approach, by writing directly to JetBlue shareholders and encouraging them to vote in favor of a JetBlue takeover.”

You mean writing directly to the Spirit shareholders- pls correct

This is good for consumers, especially in NYC and FLL

"these 2 [NK and F9] are the true worst airlines in the US, not B6.

Everyone has their own criteria to judge "worst" but mine is operations. Being reasonably reliable is table stakes for me. I don't care how nice the cabins are or how great the service if I can't count on them. By that definition, B6 is the worst.

I cheerfully concede that they do some things very well, and I wish them well. But as others here have said, B6 needs to look inward before any potential suitor will consider them ready to move outward.

How reliable is the NK operation?

Go ahead...I'll wait.

"I can’t imagine a majority of shareholders will want to go with the JetBlue option." This is a huge and macro misunderstanding of shareholder desires then. Large shareholders (think Blackstone, Fidelity, PIMCO, JPM AM, etc) are in the business of making returns - nothing else. If a buyer comes with a 40% higher offer, historically, it's really hard to convince shareholders that it is a worse offer. Shareholders typically want to take their returns - especially in the airline industry. They aren't in it for the "long term share appreciation." they want their returns and they want to get out.

"The board isn't wrong" Is this a statement of fact? There are countless instances where a BoD made the wrong decisions for a company (Hewlett Packard in the 90s). You can't say boards are never wrong as a blanket statement.

"encouraging them to vote in favor of a JetBlue takeover" This is situationally incorrect and I believe a misunderstanding of what is happening. The proxy vote on June 10 is to vote in favor of or against a F9 takeover. B6 is encouraging shareholders to vote against a F9 takeover, not in favor of a B6 takeover (obviously that is the ultimate goal, but it is not what is happening yet). B6 is hoping to convince NK shareholders that their BoD was not acting in their best interest.

I'm also incredibly surprised this article doesn't discuss the regulatory difficulties of a F9 / NK merger. If one is to argue a B6 / NK acquisition is anti-competitive and unlikely to pass DoJ, you cannot go without discussing the possibility a F9 / NK merger being shut down by DoJ.

This article is a bit weak in my opinion.

B6 is in full panic mode here. The combined NK/F9 will leapfrog them in size and relegate B6 to being an even smaller player than they already are. They can’t get planes and pilots to grow. Operations are a mess. I’m really wondering how they’re going to survive. I love their product but I don’t see how they can make it as a major player without more planes and routes (and of course fixing operations).

Alaska buying VA out from under B6 really screwed them over. That was probably B6’s best shot at staying relevant.