Spirit CEO says JetBlue wants to stop Spirit-Frontier merger

By DAVID KOENIG
AP Airlines Writer

The CEO of Spirit Airlines says JetBlue might be trying to buy his airline just to prevent Frontier Airlines from buying it. Spirit CEO Ted Christie said Thursday that “you don’t need to be an antitrust attorney” to see why Spirit rebuffed JetBlue’s $3.6 billion bid. He says it’s unlikely that antitrust regulators will let JetBlue buy Spirit — they are already suing to block a smaller partnership between JetBlue and American Airlines. JetBlue isn’t immediately commenting on the Spirit CEO’s remarks.