This is premature, and entirely speculative, but I think it would still be fun to discuss.

Assuming the deal goes through, how should management go about integrating these carriers?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say they should keep the Virgin America name. It has some catchet, while Alaska is just a smaller AA or DL to most people. Besides, it makes no sense for a nationwide carrier to be named after one out-of-the-way state.

There is precedent for this. When America West acquired US Airways, they took the US Airways name. Perhaps they can use the Alaska Airlines brand for in-state flights within Alaska. Or maybe call them Virgin Alaska.

With regards to fleet, since VX has a small number of airplanes which are similar in size to the 737s, they should probably standardize to Boeing.

Since this is not a merger of equals, it probably makes sense to do a WN/FL style merger where assets are slowly transferred over until the brand disappears, rather than a UA/CO style megamerger where systems switch over on a particular day.

Thoughts?