Originally Posted by
RealHJ
One thing that I am surprised no one has said here yet. Obviously DL feels comfortable telling other ST members "it's our way or the highway", as ST needs DL for US coverage as much as (if not more than) DL needs ST and it feels that it can get away with it, there soon being only 3 legacy major airlines in the US and only three alliances -- one each, no more, no less. However, if the DoJ blocks the US and AA merger, though it's an incredibly slim possibility, US could move to greener pastures from *A to ST and thus provide an alternative to other ST airlines for US coverage. Likely would take years and start as one-on-one interline and codeshare agreements first, but it is likely that after the merger with AA blocked US would be looking for ways - any way - to get past the dead-end where it is now. Thoughts? Or is this just too far out there?
Any of the current smaller operators and LCCs could convert to the hybrid mode to become an alliance member. market changes so does the airline company. You are LCC today does not mean you will be LCC forever (see easyjet and airberlin). So I would not write airlines like Spirit, Frontier and JetBlue off to join one of the alliance and provide NA feed if such needs converge.