Originally Posted by
Salukidawg
Bank on another M&A event in the next 12-24 months, so you can pretty much throw out any upgrade projections unless you are due to upgrade within that timeframe.
Southwest paid 1.4B for AirTran.
Alaska - 9.3B
JetBlue - 7.38B
Hawaiian - 2.26B
Spirit - 2.71B
None of these airlines compete as directly with SWA as AirTran did, and other than Alaska, none have an orderbook full of 737s.
Alaska and JetBlue are really expensive.
Hawaiian and Spirit are expensive for what you get.
I just don't see it. AirTran merger proved that an acquisition isn't a shortcut to growth.
The seniority integration won't be as easy compared to how it went during the AT merger. Many lessons have been learned since then, and I'm sure the company knows this.