Well. -sort of. It’s doubtful either company would go Chapter 7, although that’s not impossible I suppose, but both would sort of be locked in to a not-huge niche market. What woukd certainly be lost is the possibility for either of them to really get up to a scale where they could meaningfully compete against the Big Four. And that’s “compete” in the global sense, meaning not only compete for customers but compete for new hires and retention of junior people as well. What B6 would bring to a merger is organization, because they actually have one. It may not be the best and brightest but to say they would be better than NK management would be damning them with faint praise indeed. What NK brings to the table is a very young fleet, a serious near-term delivery order book, and their pilots and FAs.

Point to point flying will always be there, but it’s a niche. A lot of people need transportation that will depend upon hub connections and frequency of flights and a reliability you aren’t going to get unless there are prompt backups if something goes wrong.. H€||, pilots know that. Damn sure those of us who are commuters do.

So, are B6 and NK “straight F’d’ if this doesn’t go through? Not exactly, but they will be blighted. NK will have even greater problems competing for new hires and, as the Big Four increase their capacity, any chances for anyone else to successfully challenge their dominance will sort of go away.

it’ll be a damn Phyrrhic victory for the DOJ if they win this court case.