Originally Posted by FLYBOYMATTHEW

Perhaps it's already being orchestrated. Franke flies into FLL to work out the game plan with NK. Spirit draws down service to many overlapping (Western) cities shortly thereafter, and F9 is ready and able to fill the void. While F9 continues to hire cheaper labor and grow, NK gets out from underneath less desirable leases, and mothballs other A/C thst could potentially be returned to service at a later date. NK uses doom, gloom, and radio silence from upper management to scare more <expensive> senior pilots into leaving, then moves to cut overall pilot compensation, which in turn pushes even more senior pilots to update their apps Now they have a cheaper combined labor group overall, face less regulatory scrutiny when the deal goes public, and have lowered JCBA expectations for the combined labor groups. What emerges is a reasonably large combined LCC with a broad, coast-to-coast route steucture that holds a larger domestic market share than B6 or AS, and they get a pretty solid discount on the labor piece of CASM for the next decade or so to boot. It may not be a whipsaw in the traditional sense, but I feel like I've seen this movie before.