Had someone from the big building in the Jumpseat a few weeks ago, I won't say who. He offered to dispel any rumors from the line and I asked where the rumor of us buying Spirit was coming from (I keep hearing that, insert F9, B6 if you like). He said in a meeting prior to this conversation (may have been a captain upgrade class), I think it was OM, said that Smisek had allowed us to fall way behind DAL and AA, the company now had an end state goal of 1000 airplanes and 16-20k pilots. With this we could really hit the full potential, and the only way to get there was to buy someone. No company was specifically mentioned, but his guess was that was where the rumor was born.

Not sure how true this is, or after last weeks announcement it even still applies if accurate.