You assume this would be allowed/approved by the US Gov't. Remember the regulatory hurdles and the previously proposed mergers/acquisitions that have failed, especially in the 2000's. There are so many factors that go into these things, but even if you can get everything else to work, the DOJ antitrust anxiety can stop even the most determined merger. Alaska is one of the largest airlines by fleet, pax and destinations. I know many on here would dispute that but from a purely objective numbers perspective, you might not be the big 4, but you're currently somewhere between #5 and #7. The DOJ wouldn't even let B6 get closer to AA without filing an antitrust action last fall; it's not going to let one of the Big 4 buy AS, JB or one of the larger ULCC's right now, especially if there isn't a clear case of networks not overlapping. Frankly, I don't see any of the Big 4 buying anyone anytime soon with debt loads and the antitrust implications; I see the next few years as ULCC and non-Big 4 consolidation. That means AS, HA, B6, G4 and SY.

Think about it. AS is big enough now that it's network substantially overlaps with all of the Big 4, and there would be enormous competition/antitrust implications that almost certainly would not pass DOJ scrutiny. We are in a pandemic, yes, but despite what the MSM is saying, the numbers don't support the type of economic recession or financial pitfalls the industry had when DL/NW and UA/CO merged. I cannot say this in stronger terms - AS won't be merging or purchasing/being purchased by a Big 4 in the near future. If anything happens for AS in the near future beyond more codeshares and "synergies" it will be a merger or acquisition of a smaller ULCC. What does that leave at this point? Sun Country and Allegiant? I brought up Sun Country because there is almost no route overlap, 100% fleet commonality, synergies in freight/cargo and I think Sun Country's partial ownership by Amazon could also be attractive to Angle Lake. I could also see Allegiant and Jetblue merging for similar reasons involving route overlaps and fleet commonality.