Originally Posted by rickair7777

AS managers *very* much like their own jobs, and have always resisted M&A involving larger airlines.

The carry a fair bit of cash, and keep their debt fairly low.

They are boeing's home-town airline, fleet decisions appear to reflect that, and there's a lot of cross-pollination between the two BoDs.

If I had to guess, if AS is involved it it would be AS buying B6. The route structures are very complimentary so it makes good sense. They also have negligible overlap, so it would presumably get by the regulators (in the current regime).