I also disagree with Speedbrake on the merger not happening. I posted this on the B6 forum elaborating why, after reading the pretrial briefs.


"After reading the DOJ and JB Pretrial Brief, I will be surprised if this merger does not get approved through the courts. The DOJ pretty much gave away every single ammo JB needed to shoot them with, from the NEA trial, for the merger trial. The DOJ overplayed it's hand in the NEA and now it is coming back to bite them in the same court.

Some highlights:

- The DOJ defined the relevant market at the route-level. This was pretty much blown out the water in B6 defense by just precedents (several cases going against picking route-level)


- DOJ wants to highlight 51 overlapping routes. In B6 defense, the data is outdated as 6 of those is gone and 36 of the remaining routes is solved by the divestitures. Leaving the DOJ with 9 out of hundreds of routes? Lol Pg 41


- DOJ argues that new entry to the divested gates/slots will not be quick enough to offset increase ticket costs. Even though F9 and Allegiant (and several others) is ready to testify how ready they are to enter, B6 is not required to prove other carriers will enter or the time-frame to which they will enter. They only need to prove the barrier to enter is low. Divestitures help prove this for the difficult markets.Also, they are no requirements for the slot/gate buyers to fly the same routes that NK flies today.


The B6 Pretrail Brief is a good read if you have time."