Originally Posted by
block30
So we have Sun Country, Spirit, Jet Blue, Virgin America, Allegiant, Frontier, Southwest/Air Tran. What's that, seven? I'll bet anyone a coke or a beer that one of those seven will be involved in a merger in the next four years. I'm not sure how far ahead of official news releases or "decent rumors" the Southwest/AT merger was foreseen for that matter.
By the way, I never said I was cheering for this to happen.
No doubt, agreed 100%. The legacies have all consolidated down to just 3 big carriers. Hopefully for pilot careers' sake, they are now "too big to fail." The government probably wont approve another merger among the three due to anti-trust/competitive laws.
Now the merger wave will have to be on the LCC level. Not including SWA/AAI, there have been no mergers whatsoever at this level. If you look at the four: VX, NK, F9, and B6, all have the same Airbus fleet (different engines). VX and B6 are very comparable product-wise. NK is standalone in its product, and F9 is desperately trying to find a buyer. Among those 4, I can definitely see a merger happening in the next 5 years.