For the past eight years, in fact, Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines have been the will-they-or-won’t-they couple of the airline industry, having repeated merger discussions

More than two years after a merger deal fell apart, Frontier Airlines is considering another run at acquiring Spirit Airlines, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night.

Frontier Airlines is exploring a revived bid for Spirit Airlines Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported. The budget carriers recently held talks, though discussions are at an early stage and may not lead to a deal,

KEY TAKEAWAYS Spirit Airlines shares are surging in premarket trading Wednesday on a report that Frontier Airlines parent Frontier Group Holdings is in the early stages of a renewed bid for its rival discount carrier.

If a deal between the two carriers is reached, it would likely happen as part of Spirit restructuring its debt and other liabilities in bankruptcy.” While any potential merger is purely hypothetical and would run into the same antitrust concerns and roadblocks as with the JetBlue takeover,

If the deal does happen, it would come about as part of Spirit restructuring its debt via a bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported.