well, I guess that’s part of my quick reaction to that post, I have always been treated with nothing but with the greatest of professional courtesy when jump-seating or just chewing the fat at a gate. It’s one thing (besides driving to work, ha) that’s always attracted me to Alaska. The crews seem to be some of the best I’ve come across.

 

100% agree.

 

Really though it doesn’t make any sense.

No route map overlap actually mean there is no connectivity. Which means you cant functionally move passengers between the networks.

Without a mid continent hub the two airlines would basically continue to operate as two separate route structures effectively eliminating any synergies.


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I’m pretty sure they would figure out a way to connect the networks. And there is enough overlap in major coastal cities to make it happen as-is anyway.

 

I disagree, Both airlines do enough transcon flights to put somebody on either coast, to then catch a flight somewhere else.

 

Or create a hub in the middle.

 

That would be the logical next step after such a merger. Would anyone expect different?

 

MCI or OKC would probably volunteer.

The new entity would be pushing into the SWA league, at that scale things can be made to happen.

 

I grew up in Portland area, and went to college in Seattle. I weep a little inside every time I see what has become of those once great layover cities. In both of them, our airline has moved out of the city on layovers due to security concerns. Portland had a nice downtown vibe going alive and well in the 90's-00's. Not so much anymore. Seattle also feels much more unsafe than it did a couple of decades ago. Both cities have been wildly mismanaged over the last decade to their own demise. My friends who live in Portland would never consider going downtown now to have fun. Even in Seattle, Amazon has moved some workers out of the city for their own "safety".

It's really sad, because the very people who would love for the public to move to the "city", live in apartments, forget the car and use mass transit, seem to run the cities in such a way that makes all of that untenable for a normal family.

 

No route overlap also means that the DOJ kills off very little in the merger, so the entire revenue benefit of both companies is still intact.

The question though is where is the benefit to Alaska? JetBlue is a bit of a rudderless ship with home markets that are hyper competitive.