What any of these people are stating publicly you should take with a very small grain of salt. This won't be the first time corporate leaders have stated one thing then turned around a few days, weeks, months later and done the exact opposite. Statements these guys make to the press are intentionality designed to have intentional consequence. Corporate execs aren't like politicians in that sense that they can say anythig with only "political consequences." For execs it's about stock/stake holder confidence and the "lawsuit" and "even "criminal" culpability is immensely more of a driving force in their work vs. that of a politician. These guys rarely say anything even 20% let alone 100% true. Everything they state to the press was pre-planned.

IMHO this whole merger has been a Parker/Horten plan for a while now. In fact I think the DAL slot swap was done for US to divest out of the NYC market to remove what would have been the only real anti-trust issue for this merger. My opinion, post merger PHX will stay, PHL and DFW are toast as hubs. But I have nothing but a gut opinion driving that feeling, no analysis to offer.