Spirit again delays vote on Frontier deal to continue deal talks with budget airline and JetBlue

A Frontier Airlines plane near a Spirit Airlines plane at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on May 16, 2022 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The shareholder vote on the merger between Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines has been delayed for a second time.

The vote was supposed to be held on June 10, but has been delayed three times. The vote was delayed until July 8th, a day before it was scheduled to take place.

The vote on the deal will be held on July 15.

JetBlue Airways swooped in with a $3.6 billion all-cash offer to buy Spirit in April. The $2.9 billion cash-and-stock deal was announced two months ago.

"We are encouraged by our discussions with Spirit and are hopeful that they now recognize that Spirit shareholders have indicated their clear, overwhelming preference for an agreement with JetBlue."

The board rejected the offers because they didn't believe regulators would approve the deal. Both deals were subject to regulatory scrutiny, and the board of Spirit didn't give the offers full consideration.

A person familiar with the matter said it wasn't clear if the shareholder support would be enough for the Frontier deal to pass.

Frontier didn't comment on the latest vote delay.

Frontier shares were down less than 1% in afterhours trading. The airline was not much different.