Originally Posted by
rickair7777
Yes. NK cabin configuration, and route structure is all wrong for B6. The customer base is all wrong. They could re work all of that, but it would pee away a LOT of the NK value that they paid for... makes little sense to me at face value.
Only inconsistency between AS and B6 is fleet type. But the combined entity would be so large that it could easily support two fleets. There's also a fringe benefit to that... if the max has to take another time out for example, it would be nice to not have all the eggs in one basket.
B6 isn't what it used to be. I got row 1 on a jetBlue flight from SFO to LAX and thought I'd landed first class. Turns out, it was an A320 that was ~162 seats in an all coach class configuration. The seat padding seemed thin like Spirit. Sure it had TV screens, but it definitely seemed to be more of a low cost operation. The transcon routes are the ones with the Mint cabins. 162 seats isn't much different than 178 so swallowing Spirit may be easier than most think. If it goes through, I'd expect it to be all jetBlue and a strong competitor in the big 5. In the meantime, it looks like there will be a bidding war which will be profitable for Spirit share holders.