Spirit Airlines, still reeling from its failed merger with JetBlue, may have found another suitor.
The Wall Street Journal reports Frontier Airlines is exploring a bid for the discount carrier—and if that causes a sense of déjà vu, there’s good reason. The two airlines reached a $2.9 billion buyout agreement in 2022, only to see that deal scuttled when JetBlue made a competing big.
For the past eight years, in fact, Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines have been the will-they-or-won’t-they couple of the airline industry, having repeated merger discussions.
The talks, says the Journal, are at an early stage and may not result in a bid. A lot of that could depend on Spirit’s ongoing efforts to restructure its debt. The airline is considering a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing
Spirit shares were up 27% in early trading Wednesday on the news.
Spirit Airlines has not posted an annual profit since before COVID. That has resulted in the carrier having a substantial debt load. It struck a deal to be acquired by JetBlue, but the Justice Department moved to block that merger, arguing it would harm consumer choice and result in higher ticket prices.
Spirit has $3.3 billion in debt with maturities coming due. The carrier has until just before the end of the year to refinance $1.1 billion in secured bonds. If it fails to do so, it could lost its ability to process credit card transactions.
Spirit has already cut dozens of routes during the upcoming holiday period and furloughed 186 pilots, as well as offered incentives to customers, such as launching a business-class option and blocking off the middle seat.
Frontier, meanwhile, hopes that a merger with Spirit could help it better compete against larger carriers, such as Delta, United and American, which have increasingly been taking market share away from deep discount airlines.
Spirit declined to comment on the reports. Frontier did not immediately responded to Fortune’s request for comment.
