That would explain things. In that case BB should make it more clear that the "unified brand" he is discussing does not involve a "unified brand name", and that neither of the airline names or colors will change. There seem to be a lot of people speculating that they will. And a lot of people will question BB if they don't. Maybe the analysts know what BB is talking about but it doesn't seem the public does, despite the fact that BB has said multiple times that he is keeping both brands.
I don't understand why BB might want to adopt an Alaska/Horizon model for Frontier/Midwest. Horizon clearly is Alaska's regional airline, like Lynx was to Frontier or Republic is for Frontier and Midwest. The only difference is that Horizon has a public brand name and Republic and Lynx do not.
A move could be made to make Republic a branded regional carrier like Horizon, which would allow BB to easily swap planes between the two mainline carriers, but obviously this would create confusion for Midwest and Frontier fliers who might already wonder why the airline uses two names and would create signficant confusion with the contract flyer side of Republic Airways and RAH. The benefits seem minor compared to the costs.
If Bedford is planning to retain the two brands, why aren't the 10 swapped aircraft between Midwest and Frontier getting repainted, as well as the ERJ's replacing Lynx aircraft? Or are they?