Spirit favors Frontier’s offer over Jetblue bid

Spirit Airlines said Monday that it still supports Frontier Airlines’ $2.9 billion takeover bid for the airline, saying it was more likely to win regulatory approval than Jetblue’s competing $3.6 billion offer.

Spirit, based in Miramar, Florida, said antitrust regulators are unlikely to approve Jetblue’s offer because of Jetblue’s alliance with American Airlines in the Northeast, a deal that the Justice Department is suing to block.

“We struggle to understand how Jetblue can believe” that the Justice Department or a court would let Jetblue strike a deal with American, then buy Spirit, eliminating the nation’s largest low-cost airline, the Spirit board said in a letter to Jetblue directors.

New York-based Jetblue rejected Spirit’s view, especially after promising last week to make concessions designed to assure regulatory approval of its offer.

Jetblue’s CEO seemed to raise the possibility of a hostile takeover bid Monday.

The development was a reversal from last month, when Spirit said that after speaking with financial and legal advisers, its directors believed Jetblue’s offer could “reasonably” turn out to be the better of the two deals.

Spirit said its board continues to back the offer made by Frontier in February and views it as the best way to maximize value for the airline.

The airline anticipates a deal with Denver-based Frontier closing in the second half of the year.

The Jetblue-american cooperative venture in Boston and New York, called the Northeast Alliance, or NEA, was opposed by Spirit and other competitors long before Frontier made an attempt in February to buy Spirit.