AT was profitable with value and assets as well, but they don't call an 800lb gorilla an 800lb gorilla for nothing. JB is similar in size, stock and market cap to AT and SWA is even bigger proportionately now than they were then. AA is huge and AA+US is crushingly large.

As for the SLI, remember its only a merger if its a merger. Look at the threats SWA made to AT. They threatened not to merge, operate separately and phase out quickly if the AT pilots didn't agree. The illusion of the "federal merger law" didn't do squat for them because there was an extremely easy end run around the law; just stay outside of it and it doesn't apply. Then there's the issue of fragmentation, which always has parameters that can easilly be skirted. Look at your own language. Its usually somewhere around half in a single transaction. That's another angle that can be circumvented very, very easily even with a strong CBA. But especially with each individual pilot scrambling to be included.

Remember AA and SW like to staple anyway as a best case, and not even take pilots if possible. JB is a very, very junior pilot group. Anything even remotely close to a relative integration, even with fences, would absolutely slaughter pretty much any other pilot group in the industry resulting in one of the biggest windfalls ever seen. Do the math on 33%, 50%, 85% up the lists at JB compared to US and AA or even SW. Expect every other management and labor group to work together to do anything and everything possible, including waiving their own scope, permitted type and merger language if necessary to facilitate operating a large, super young pilot group separately to whatever extent necessary to take assets and not employees in a resonable amount of time.