Frontier to acquire Spirit Airlines for $6.6 billion deal

There may be one less low-cost air carrier in the future. Frontier has signed a deal to buy Spirit Airlines in a cash and stock deal.

The $6.6 billion sale will create the nation’s fifth-largest carrier, The Associated Press reported.

The deal was reached over the weekend, but the CEOs of both companies announced it Monday morning in New York City, CNBC reported.

The sale will include $2.9 billion in cash and the remaining $3.7 billion will come in stocks.

Spirit stockholders will get 1.9126 shares of Frontier stock and an additional $2.13 in cash for each Spirit share they owned before the deal.

On Friday, Spirit’s shares closed at $25.83 while Frontier closed at $12.39, the AP reported.

Current Frontier shareholders will control about 51.5% of the stocks after the agreement. Spirit shareholders will have about 48.5%.

The deal will result in more low-cost fares in the U.S. and to Latin America and the Caribbean.

The sale will close officially in the second half of this year, the AP reported.

Neither the name of the company nor its CEO has been announced. The chair of the company, however, will be Frontier’s Bill Frankie, CNBC reported.

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