JetBlue Airways (JBLU) and Frontier Airlines have a lot of unfortunate things in common lately. Both presented their third-quarter results on Tuesday and their share prices are falling. Additionally, both companies’ financial statements cover Spirit Airlines (SAVE), the mutual ex of the two airlines.

Although JetBlue posted big profitability gains and increased operating margin by five percentage points, it still lost $38 million on $2.4 billion in revenue. The share price has fallen more than 13%.

Meanwhile, Frontier’s razor-thin margins went the other way, with $26 million in net profit on $935 million in sales. The share price has fallen almost 20%. But both of their failed attempts to merge with Spirit continue to loom.

In March, JetBlue broke off its partnership with Spirit after a judge blocked the union the year before on antitrust grounds. JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty has called the issue “three years of distraction”; in its earnings release, JetBlue says that “for the nine months ended September 30, 2024, special items” on its expense book “include spirit-related costs.”

The company’s founder, who no longer works at JetBlue, has even suggested that Spirit made a mistake by not joining forces with its previous suitor: Frontier Airlines.

Spirit originally planned to merge with Frontier, but dropped out when JetBlue came up with a (financially) sweeter deal. Although reports have recently emerged that Spirit and Frontier are rekindling their former bond, Frontier’s earnings statement shows that it has never stopped reflecting on their abandoned entanglement: a footnote refers to “$1 million in employee retention costs incurred in connection with the terminated merger with Spirit Airlines , Inc., for the nine months ended September 30, 2023.”

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