MIRAMAR – Spirit Airways has scheduled a shareholder vote on JetBlue’s proposed $3.7 billion acquisition of Spirit for Oct. 19.
Traders who owned Spirit shares on Monday will be qualified to vote, the airline stated in a securities filing.
The sale would even now want acceptance from U.S. antitrust regulators, a process that is anticipated to choose quite a few months.
Spirit’s board approved a sale to JetBlue on July 28. Spirit leaders most well-liked a merger with Frontier Airlines, but that stock-and-money deal, worthy of far much less, failed to obtain enough assistance from Spirit shareholders.
JetBlue leaders believe that acquiring Spirit will give their airline ample heft to be a much more formidable challenger to the dominant U.S. carriers: American, United, Delta and Southwest.
The addition of Spirit’s fleet would end result in New York-primarily based JetBlue getting all around 450 planes and make it the fifth-greatest U.S. airline.
Spirit shares had been virtually unchanged at $22.93 in afternoon buying and selling Tuesday, nicely under JetBlue’s present of $33.50 for each share moreover a ticking charge to address the time regulators will need to review the deal.
Spirit commenced as a constitution operator and now operates as a so-referred to as ultra-minimal-value carrier that has very low fares but provides far more costs than typical carriers. It is based mostly in Miramar, Florida.
