(Reuters) -Spirit Airlines is in talks with bondholders about the terms of a possible bankruptcy filing in the wake of its failed merger with JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ , the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. .
Spirit shares fell 18% in after-market trading.
Spiritual airlines (NYSE:) did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The report adds that the budget company has also been exploring restructuring its balance sheet through an out-of-court transaction, although recent talks have focused more on reaching an agreement with bondholders and other creditors to support a Chapter filing. 11.
The timing of such a filing, if it occurred, would not be imminent, according to the WSJ report.
In June, CEO Ted Christie said the airlines were not considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and were “encouraged” by the plan they had in place after the JetBlue deal fell through.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
