Originally Posted by
WYSIWYG
I doubt SW would be able to get passed the DOJ to purchase a larger carrier. As of today, the combined market cap ( AS/SW) would be almost 30% higher than Deltas . Over a 1000 narrowbodies . And if SW would make a bid and potentially go forward with an acquisition , the other big 3 will not stand idle by and watch .
Some truth here, but the trust-busters do not have a mandate to preserve the positions of the top three so there's no reason a merged SWA cannot be somewhat larger by some metrics than one or more of the big three. Also market cap, revenue, number of planes, number of employees is not of interest to the trustbusters, other than how all of that influences market forces. Location (overlap) matters more than quantity.
Also AS and WN do not have a great deal of overlap except in one city. SWA is not huge in LA, SFO, PDX, SEA, or ANC.