Originally Posted by Irishblackbird

I completely agree that the legacies are at a structural disadvantage, and they are going to take some serious knocks and losses along the way. But a wounded animal can still be a very dangerous one as well. They have all said they are going to emerge much smaller airlines. They are offering generous early out's for many near retirement, long term VIL's, shedding outdated fleets, and I wouldn't be surprised if one or two legacy carriers go to a two type fleet. One for domestic and one for international. I can also envision even more reliance on their code share and regional feed to maintain presence in markets that will no longer justify narrow body domestic service in order to keep the brand visible and keep competition at bay. Lastly, I can see the strategic use of bankruptcy to preserve the airline by renegotiated contracts, and protection from creditors. The last one is what I fear most when trying to compete.

I definitely think the LCC''s will have many opportunities to expand, but I think this will only happen if there are passengers to fly. If we continue to see the virus infections climb, and major destinations go back into lock down, or the dreaded 2nd wave emerging. Then only the strong are going to survive, and our industry will continue to contract, or never return to 2019 passenger levels. I just don't think market expansion will be that easily achieved by the LLC's.