Spirit Airlines planes on the tarmac at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on February 07, 2022 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Shares of Spirit Airlines surged more than 22% on Tuesday after a report that JetBlue Airways has made a bid for the budget carrier.
Trading in Spirit was halted before the market close. Its shares were at $26.93.
JetBlue’s bid, reported by The New York Times, comes less than two months after Spirit and budget rival Frontier Airlines agreed to combine into a discount airline behemoth. The newspaper cited three people with knowledge of the matter.
JetBlue, Spirit and Frontier didn’t immediately comment to CNBC.
New York-based JetBlue bid $3.6 billion for Spirit, about 40% over Frontier’s cash and share offer for Spirit in February, according to the Times.
JetBlue shares closed down about 7%.
Spirit and Frontier both solely fly planes in the Airbus A320 family. Those make up the majority of JetBlue’s fleet, which would reduce costs and logistical headaches in combining the carriers.
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