The big four control 80%, in very roughly equal shares.

The rest are fighting for scraps of the remaining 20% and will eventually all get crushed by economy of scale (and variety of uses for mileage points) if they are not allowed more mergers. There's probably room for one or two small niche ULCC to haul the trash that nobody else will touch.

United to buy Sun Country! First!

1500 pilots vs. 10000 pilots... Not sure there's much room to compare there. 1500 pilots all at once would sure fill a 1.5 yr hiring gap, even if many would or could bid for a new type right away.

United retired an entire fleet - the 747 - during that 'hiring gap'. In addition, there were furlough returnees AND there has been hiring. I don't know where you came up with this 1.5 year hiring gap. You've got bad information. Besides, this is a pretty brain dead topic - it's extremely unlikely that United is going to buy another carrier any time soon.

T-Mobile and Sprint merging is more like Alaska and JBlue merging.

Mostly it's funny that you're taking it so seriously. Poking fun at merger rumors and coming up with marginally believable background justifications is traditional fun.

Also, did you hear that American is going to buy Hawaiian because they can't risk letting SWA win another market? AA/Hawaiian will fly empty if necessary to preserve the routes. That's what I heard anyhow.

See? It's funny, smile.

I can see Delta buying Hawaiian
330s
And they regret not getting the 787


It’s only 2 months of the profits from 2018 and Hawaiian is part of delta

Don't quit your day job.