B6 could possibly find capital for such a project. Or so could AS. New investors get a stake in the new, larger airline. Could be hostile, or could be a two or three-way deal. Many possible permutations if the new merged airline looks potentially greater than the mathematical sum of the two. In theory, you could be creating value out of nothing, and there are people who do that kind of thing.

Blue hawaskin. That'll be the name of the new three way airline. I just want nothing to do with your management team. (Not that ours is better)

Don't be surprised to see AA make a bid.

I think we are too large for DAL, UAL, or AA to make a bid. I don't think it would get approved. SWA could, I believe, or a merger with either or all of JB, HAL, Sun Country maybe. Frontier, Spirit, Allegiant are too different, in my opinion, for any realistic merger talks.

AA is too big.

UAL is not happening, too much overlap on the west coast.

Not too big for DAL. AA is significantly larger than DAL, adding AS to DAL would not displace AA from #1.

A DAL acquisition would require some concessions to the trust busters. Whether it makes sense to DAL depends on how bad they would want gates and planes (and maybe pilots), and whether they think they can simply crush AS without buying them... risk there is they don't control who would get the gates (and planes). Airports have egalitarian ideas about enabling small competition, so if AS left, the gates might go to some random startup or pesky ULCC.

Concur that JB and HAL are probably the best fits for a coordinated merger. DAL would just buy AS if they thought it would benefit them.

Blue Horseshoe LOVES Anacott Steel.

You heard it here first...thank me later.

-Reg

AA
 

AA is large. But there is plenty of argument they can make to get it though. They are retiring 3000 pilots between now and 2021. They can argue they need us just to cover attrition. Not to mention that puts two major players in competition for the NW (DL and AA). I don't think it's too far fetched. The last thing I'd want is to do with JB. SW would be a much better option. But still not preferable, imo.

Isn’t Delta already bigger in SEA than Alaska currently is?

No, by a big margin. I think we're, (AS), around 51% market share in SEA and DAL is still under 20%. Those are numbers from 2017 but I don't think DAL has captured 30+ % in the last 4 mos....

Delta or SW
 

I would prefer Delta or SW but B6 makes the most sense