Originally Posted by
benzoate
I see AA only if they choose to enter a bidding war. WN, is doing well on its own. AS, if it chooses to grow can only do so on the east coast with a merger. Simply no other way to just expand but do they have an appetite to compete nation/world wide or just fortress the PNW. I think you dropped F9 for a comedy break? A merger with them would expedite bankruptcy with their management being worse than JetBlue’s.
Yeah it's a stretch, but feel free to critique. Robin Hayes knew we needed to scale and needed a national presence, he also knew this would be tough as an un-aligned carrier which brought about the NEA. Unfortunately, the execution of the merger and alliance was horrible. The idea remains sound.
JB/F9 is very similar to the old JB/NK, but executed in the right way. Step one would be get all of the JB/UA stuff settled. Blanket domestic codeshare with UA as well as a Star alliance membership for JB. After that you could merge JB/F9 and use their existing bases to expand. I would focus mainly on the major US cities where UA doesn't have a big presence. F9 brings DFW/ATL/PHL/PHX type of places in addition to BOS/JFK/FLL/MCO from JB. This would expand the reach of the UA/Star network and likely cut into other legacies bread and butter (AA in particular). It would also help other Star alliance carriers globally who serve these cities but have no feed support. The thesis would be that many travelers in these legacy hubs are "trapped" and have no other decent option for alliance programs to join. There might be a subset of pax willing to move to Star alliance in DFW for instance, just nobody giving them the chance.
Crazy? Dumb? Probably yes to both.