First of all you're right. I don't think management is trying to kill LCCs. That's just a byproduct of the post pandemic United growth and expansion of basic economy.

Secondly, they aren't focused on "top spot". United is already the #1 airline in the world by every reasonable metric. More mainline planes, more passenger miles flown, and more revenue from flying passengers than any other airline in the world. Yes I'm aware American counts their RJ fleet flown by their express carriers. United has over 1,100 planes and Delta about 960. We also have nearly double the number of widebody planes than Delta has.

Delta insists that "total corporate revenue" is the only metric that matters, because they make $5B a year from an oil refinery that is included in their annual passenger revenue. But absent the oil refinery revenue, Delta has less passenger revenue than United.

Also being in "top spot" isn't really anything exciting because it doesn't actually mean anything other than bragging rights.

Throughout the 2010s the airlines all played nice and just kept in their lanes, but as soon as Kirby took over he put his foot on the pedal and that made it harder for the little airlines because we took so many of their passengers. Its just going to get worse as Starlink is expanding (331 installs already) and we get those 500 more planes in the next 5 years.

Other than the mid-late 90s, these last few years have been fun to watch a management team that's really interested in running a great airline. Too bad the last 30 years weren't like this. It would have been a lot more fun.