Originally Posted by 9mikemike

Outlook for clear skies and smooth sailing. No merger anywhere in the forecast. Amen. Alaska will continue to do what they have always done. It works, they are comfortable with it and it is durable. Returning to single fleet is like hiring 500 pilots. Competing in a volatile furl market with only NEO/MAX creates higher profitability than flights flown…More pilots not needed. 190 seats instead of 150 seats is again many pilots not needed. The ability to profitably throttle expansion back to idle and coast is exceptionally durable. Alaska does not need or want to ever do any East coast flying or East coast to mid con flying….They do not want or need to have a hub off of the West coast. They make staggering profits of the CC program…Profitability that requires no pilots or airplanes. The cost for another airline to attempt a hostile take over is far beyond the value they would gain. Seattle is not that important to anyones operation except Alaskas. The four Major airlines in the country are not interested in the merger game. JetBlue does not have the horsepower to attempt a merger and Alaska has zero interest in them or their type of operation. Spirit/Frontier will be years in the process of cleaning up the mess they have created. Sun Country-not a chance. It brings nothing….Hawaiian-not a chance. Alaska has no use for what they are. And no desire to again spend hundreds of millions getting rid of an entire Airline worth of airplanes…..
If anyone at Alaska is foolish enough to be hanging on hoping for a mythical merjer….Sad times ahead for them.