Spirit is reportedly in talks with alternative investment firm Castlelake for a potential sale.
Citing people close to the discussions, CNBC reported Thursday that Spirit has not reached a merger agreement with fellow ultra-low-cost carrier Frontier and may agree to a takeover by Castlelake to save its business and emerge from bankruptcy.
The news channel’s sources did not discuss specifics of the potential deal, which would likely have to include Spirit’s bondholders.
Neither Spirit nor Castlelake have commented on the report.
Castlelake has approximately $33 billion in assets under management.
Last August, it expanded its presence in the aviation industry with the launch of a new lending entity, Merit AirFinance. The business will provide debt capital to airlines and leasing companies for new and used aviation assets, officials said at the time. Merit had about $1.8 billion in deployable capital when it launched.
Castlelake said it has deployed more than $5 billion to airlines and leasing companies since 2020.
Spirit suggested that a merger or sale could be in its future last October, when it disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it was in talks with several interested parties.
About two months later, Bloomberg reported that the airline was in discussions with Frontier. The two carriers compete in the same market and have considered a linkup before, though without results.
In 2022, Frontier attempted to acquire Spirit, but Spirit’s shareholders rejected the offer. Two years later, in 2024, the carriers reportedly resumed discussions on a merger, but no deal was reached. And in January 2025, as Spirit prepared to emerge from its first stretch in bankruptcy, Frontier offered to buy the airline for about $2.1 billion in cash and stock, only to be rejected again.
