Frontier buys Spirit Airlines

Frontier Group Holdings Inc. agreed to buy Spirit Airlines Inc. for $2.9 billion in cash and stock in a deal that

Quote: Pacomartin

Frontier Group Holdings Inc. agreed to buy Spirit Airlines Inc. for $2.9 billion in cash and stock in a deal that

Back to airline mergers. It is next to impossible to build a national carrier without mergers along the way. This one is interesting as they focus on leisure travel not business.

Quote: AZDuffman

This one is interesting as they focus on leisure travel not business.

Normally the FAA makes the airlines divest some gates to keep up competition, but in this case there usually is competition from a major airline. For instance United Airlines flies ~50% of passengers from Newark (EWR) airport. Both Frontier and Spirit fly from EWR to six destinations probably mostly leisure passengers. You could argue that leisure passengers will now see higher fares, but they already had the option of flying to one of these destinations on United (or American, Delta, or JetBlue).

December 2020 - November 2021
Carrier Passengers Share
United 9,971 47.31%
JetBlue 2,851 13.53%
Spirit 1,688 8.01%
American 1,676 7.95%
Delta 954 4.53%
Other 3,934 18.67%


Both Frontier and Spirit from EWR: Orlando #1,Miami #3, Atlanta #4, Tampa #10, Las Vegas, West Palm Beach
Frontier Airlines from EWR: Cancún, Dallas/Fort Worth, Montego Bay, Nassau
Spirit Airlines from EWR: Austin, Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Houston–Intercontinental, Myrtle Beach, Nashville, New Orleans, San Juan

Frontier and Spirit were basically the same already.

Charge low base fares and nickel and dime you for everything else. All while providing absolutely zero customer service.

Quote: ams288

Frontier and Spirit were basically the same already.

Charge low base fares and nickel and dime you for everything else. All while providing absolutely zero customer service.

As a true budget flyer I love the discount airlines. Pay the basic fare and choose not to check bags, take carryon's, pick seats, etc. I will occasionally buy a coke but that is the only extra money they get from me.

I am sad to see the two merge as I want as many budget airlines as possible.

Quote: DRich

As a true budget flyer I love the discount airlines. Pay the basic fare and choose not to check bags, take carryon's, pick seats, etc. I will occasionally buy a coke but that is the only extra money they get from me.

I am sad to see the two merge as I want as many budget airlines as possible.

I have only flown Spirit two times when the other airlines were freakishly expensive. I never had a problem as far as getting to my destination on time. But I’ve certainly heard horror stories (and seen YouTube videos) about what happens when Spirit effs up.

But I would agree that the more budget airlines, the better.

Quote: ams288

I have only flown Spirit two times when the other airlines were freakishly expensive. I never had a problem as far as getting to my destination on time. But I’ve certainly heard horror stories (and seen YouTube videos) about what happens when Spirit effs up.

But I would agree that the more budget airlines, the better.

I have probably flown Spirit 30 times and Frontier 10 times and have never had any experiences any worse than on the major airlines that I have flown. I have an international flight coming up and I did not hesitate to consider Spirit even though I ended up with one of the smaller "major" airlines.

Quote: Pacomartin

Normally the FAA makes the airlines divest some gates to keep up competition, but in this case there usually is competition from a major airline.

With 4 majors there is not much competition anywhere. I have not heard if this will give us another "major" or will it be closer to JBLU in scope?

JBLU service is often very luxurious cross country service, and they have a more developed international scope (including London) than the combined Frontier+Spirit+Southwest

Major single aisle aircraft airlines
2021: 12 months domestic Passengers + 9 months international passengers
17,729,301+648,246 Frontier (111 Airbus jets)
25,002,064+1,875,720 Spirit (175 Airbus jets)
20,568,791+4,732,138 JetBlue (222 Airbus jets + 60 Embraer jets 190 to be retired by 2026)
19,473,873+950,416 Alaska (On April 4, 2016, Alaska Air Group announced it would acquire Virgin America, Received 45 Airbus jets and will retire all but 10 in 2023 to become a primarily B737 airline)
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109,114,531+1,623,012 Southwest Airlines
52,135,223 + 8,142,286 United Airlines not counting United Express
83,180,409 + 6,364,411 Delta Airlines not counting Delta Connection
95,168,320 + 12,087,254 American Airlines not counting American Eagle