The planned "elephant wedding" between the US budget airlines Frontier and Spirit Airlines is off the table. The agreement between the two carriers was canceled by mutual agreement.

The low costers had planned to merge with each other. A large low-cost airline should emerge. However, competitor Jetblue quickly intervened and tried to win the favor of Spirit shareholders. Initially, this was not very successful, because Frontier and Spirit stuck to their merger plans. Everything is different now, because Spirit wants to start talks with Jetblue. The merger with Frontier is off the table. According to official statements, the initiative came from Spirit.

In a statement, the first-named airline said it was disappointed that its competitor decided to cancel the merger plans. At the same time, the good cooperation that we had during the negotiations is positively emphasized. Jetblue's counter-offer may have been financially more attractive to Spirit shareholders. It was officially announced on Thursday that a formal acquisition agreement had been signed.

Around $3,8 million in cash will be offered. It can be assumed that this amount will increase, because many shareholders are likely to speculate that Jetblue will make improvements again. Therefore, it is currently not foreseeable how long the takeover will drag on.

This means that shareholders have significantly more money, because Frontier would have given 2,9 billion US dollars and shares. At first, Spirit's management stuck to the original plan because a takeover by Jetblue was considered questionable under antitrust law. However, the bill was not taken with the owners, i.e. the shareholders, because they stopped the takeover and merger process with Frontier and want to sell it to Jetblue. Logical reason: There is more money per share.

If the shareholders of both companies and the competition authorities give the go-ahead, an industry giant with a fleet of 458 machines will emerge. In addition, around 300 more aircraft have been ordered from Airbus. Jetblue believes the acquisition will result in annual savings of up to $700 million.