Spirit CEO says JetBlue wants to stop Spirit-Frontier merger

The CEO of Spirit Airlines suggested Thursday that JetBlue Airways is more interested in blocking a merger of Spirit and Frontier Airlines than it is in buying Spirit.

Ted Christie provided more details on why Spirit’s board rebuffed a $3.6 billion buyout offer from JetBlue in favor of a lower bid from Frontier.

Christie said “you don’t need to be an antitrust attorney” to see that federal regulators are unlikely to let JetBlue buy his airline while they are suing to break up JetBlue’s Northeast partnership with American Airlines on anti-competitiveness grounds.

JetBlue did not immediately comment on Christie’s remarks.

Spirit announced Monday that its board unanimously backed Frontier’s $2.9 billion offer because it is more likely to win regulatory approval. JetBlue’s CEO has hinted that his airline could respond by launching a hostile takeover effort against Spirit.