Frontier and Spirit Airlines announced yesterday that they will merge, forming the largest U.S. ultra-low-cost carrier, and pushing past Alaska and JetBlue to become the fifth-largest U.S. carrier—assuming the merger can get clearance from the U.S. government.
The combined carrier would have a fleet of nearly 300 planes, nearly all A320s, with more on order, and a route network that would combine Spirit’s eastern strength with Frontier’s western coverage, enabling many more connections and route possibilities. Current fleet orders between the two companies will allow growth to nearly 500 planes by 2026, while replacing A320ceo planes with more efficient A320neo.
Even combined, however, the new airline—whose name hasn’t yet been chosen—will only start at about a quarter the size of American or Delta in domestic passengers, and a third or so of United or Southwest. Between them, the carriers operate 2832 routes, with only 18% of them overlapping.
The ownership of the two airlines and of the combination has a lot of connections also. Indigo Partners, which is also the owner or major partner in Wizz Air, Chile’s JetSmart and Mexico’s Volaris, has a controlling interest in Frontier, and will end up owning 51.5% of the new company. Prior to buying its interest in Frontier in 2013, it sold its majority ownership of Spirit. Indigo managing partner Bill Franke will head the combined company.
