The founder of JetBlue Airways (JBLU-6.09%) made matters worse after the airline’s ill-fated merger attempt with Spirit Airlines (TO RESCUE+53.06%). David Neeleman, who left the company in 2007 and now runs Breeze Airways, told the Washington Post that Spirit should have merged with Frontier Airlines (ULCC-1.29%) instead, a bitter irony all around.

First of all, that had been Spirit’s plan in the first place. In 2022 it is announced a merger with Frontier that would have brought together two of America’s biggest cheap flyers. But then JetBlue came in with a more expensive offer to become Spirit’s dance partner instead. But after a judge blocked the JetBlue-Spirit merger on antitrust grounds in January, the two companies the attempt stopped in March.

The next irony is about what came next. After “three years of distraction,” as current JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty put it earlier this year, JetBlue is blazing a solo path forward and Spirit is struggling to survive. It’s a task made more difficult as larger airlines introduce cheaper tickets compete with the likes of Spirit appreciated.

Where it used to compensate for lost ticket revenue by charge for everything elseis now trying to become Spirit more like a typical airline by offering things like assigned seating and something resembling a first-class option.

“No one would ever fly Spirit if they could fly United (UAL-0.22%) or delta (VALLEY-1.25%),” Neeleman told the Post. “So now Spirit and Frontier are trying to move more in that direction.”