I don't think they give Frontier's current business model more than 1.5 seconds of thought.

Blue shirts, TV's and a network tweak and problem solved.

Why would UAL abandon EWR? They are by far the dominant carrier there. Dominant hubs make more money. See ATL and DFW/CLT.

While JetBlue's hub is large in FLL by their standards it is not really a large hub. Look at MIA as an example.

Boston maybe, but why spend $10b (estimated) on acquiring a carrier just for one airport? JFK would need to be divested and that would hand it to Delta or AA.

Oh, and moldy pizza and IROP underwear.

They would most likely not have to divest JFK. They allowed Delta to have a very large LaGuardia and JFK operation simultaneously. Maintaining a Newark and JFK operation would not be much of a problem for the DOJ, and JFK and LaGuardia are the only slot controlled airports in the area.

AA also has hubs in JFK and to a lesser extent LGA. Plus jetBlue also has a hub in JFK. EWR is owned by UA almost completely. You can bet they would not allow it.

Delta would be a better candidate for purchasing jetBlue based on their structure. They already have the JFK and (growing) BOS hubs.

That being said do you see the largest carriers becoming larger through acquisitions? I just don't see it being pushed through. Especially with fuel prices rising rapidly.

Yup if Wall St wants it, it can happen.
Not saying it will but guys saying things can’t happen are insane. Sell some stuff to SWA and whatever the other guys want get rid of some competition and there you go.

Who knows these days but anyone sitting around saying no has not watched the industry.

EWR is no longer slot controlled. I don't think they will look at EWR the same as LGA and JFK any longer. May require giving up some EWR gates, but that's it.

They would not likely allow Delta to buy JB without more JFK divestitures. They have large hubs at both SLOT CONTROLLED NYC airports.

The entire point of blocking a corporate merger of any kind is consumer protection. That is not the priority of this administration or the GOP in general. They priority business interest over the consumer and don't like government interference when not absolutely required.

So yes, I think UAL and JB would be approved with some token divestitures to make it look like they care about protecting consumers.

Pretty much.

F9 guy here,

As much as we’d love somebody to rescue us from Indigo I don’t see it happening. If JB couldn’t get F9 bought a few years ago they surely can’t now with Indigo’s inflated self-valuation. Add to that JB is losing money with the strongest industry tailwinds we’ve seen in a while, not likely to have the capital Indigo would want to see on the table.

No I’m afraid the world is stuck with Indigo and their visions as long as there are people buying $39 tickets. In fact I see Indigo purchasing a different airline (NK, JB, ??) in a whipsaw attempt before allowing their cash cow to make money for anybody but themselves.

JetBlue is hardly losing money.