Originally Posted by iaflyer

Well - that's what people thought with Frontier/SWA. You'll get some senior pilots who say, "if I wanted to go to Delta, I would of gone - I want DOH or 1:1 for a merger, etc if you want it to happen."

Personally, I can't see why Delta would be interested in Spirit. True, Spirit has a lot of Latin America, but it's all ultra-low cost flying. If Delta bought Spirit, and put a Delta cost structure onto those route, I can't see much profit to be had.

The only thing I could see Delta wanting from Spirit are the airplanes. But, Spirit management seems to see the benefit of selling airplanes for a profit, so I don't think the airline would be cheap. (ie, by buying Spirit I don't think Delta would get the airplane for a song.)

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think many of Spirit's routes are exclusive - ie, the are routes that only Spirit can fly. I think if Delta wanted to fly most of the routes, they could just start flying them.