https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/Alaska-Airlines-global-competitor-analysis
JetBlue a good fit?
Still, said DiFiore, Alaska faces a steep climb to compete with Delta and 13 foreign carriers in Seattle, including Korean Air, Delta's key Asian partner that placed
large aircraft orders for widebody Airbus and Boeing jets in 2024 and 2025. He called Alaska's recent order of five Dreamliners "modest."
"It's going to be really difficult," DiFiore said. There's no guarantee Alaska is going to succeed."
He predicted that in five years, Alaska's identity will still be as a West Coast regional airline, unless it does a third merger since its 2016 acquisition of Virgin America.
Ferguson said that only another acquisition within five years would enable Alaska to grow its co-branded credit card and loyalty programs on a scale required to compete against the U.S. network airlines.
He said money-losing JetBlue is the most likely candidate for a merger. Acquiring JetBlue would resolutely end any talk of Alaska being mainly a West Coast operator; JetBlue is strong on the East Coast and in Florida and the Caribbean. It also has a small network of Europe flights from Boston and New York.
The airline just might have the ambition to do it, said Ferguson, adding that Alaska Air Group CEO Ben Minicucci "appears to be a guy that wants to build something."