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Spirit Airlines Shareholders Give Green Light to $3.8B Merger with JetBlue

Two of the biggest affordable airlines in the US just got a little closer to one another.

Spirit Airlines shareholders voted Wednesday to accept a $3.8B buyout from JetBlue Airways.

Federal antitrust regulators could still put the kibosh on the deal, though.

JetBlue won the right to the merger after outbidding Frontier in their quest to acquire Spirit, which is alone the nation’s largest affordable airline.

Spirit CEO Ted Christie said after the vote, “This is an important step forward on our path to closing a combination that will create the most compelling national low-fare challenger to the dominant US carriers.”

JetBlue said in a statement that the vote was “a major milestone in our plan to join with Spirit to create a high-quality, low-fare national challenger to the Big Four airlines.”

The “Big Four” are American, United, Delta, and Southwest.