On Wednesday, shareholders of US carrier Spirit Airlines (NYSE:SAVE) Inc voted in favour of JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) Corp’s USD 3.8 billion takeover offer, moving the firms closer to creating the nation’s fifth-largest carrier.

A majority of Spirit’s stakeholders supported the deal. However, the vote’s complete results will be revealed later in a regulatory filing with the market regulator US Securities and Exchange Commission.

JetBlue and Spirit expect to complete the regulatory process and close the deal in the first half of 2024. Both the companies face an uphill struggle getting US regulators to assent to their combination. It is to be noted that Spirit resisted the bid earlier.

Reportedly, Frontier Group Holdings Inc and JetBlue were involved in an intense bidding war for Spirit to create a combined airline that could compete with legacy US carriers at a time when the industry faces worker shortages and high jet fuel costs. However, in July, New York-based Spirit sided with JetBlue’s revised offer, a day after terminating its USD 2.7 billion merger deal with Frontier.

Spirit’s shares were up 0.7 per cent in morning trade on Wednesday.