I will say this, though; the DOJ has left AS rather in a pickle with the restrictions placed upon it post VX deal. It's not like there are any independent players left with a vast Midwestern network they could plug into because the DOJ let AA buy TWA, Delta suck up Northwest, and United eat Continental, unless you labor under the illusion that Sun Country's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

The Northeast and Caribbean would be manageable with a partnership with JetBlue, but that's going to take time and a vast amount of massaging of bruised egos post VX deal. There's no good entry point into the Southeast at all, AirTran having been acquired by the Canyon Blue Borg. In fact, in general, most great growth opportunities are either now legacy fortress hubs or occupied by Southwest.

I'm not sure how AS moves out of the niche it's now in; it's effectively now the mirror image of USAir, circa 1995, and we know how that story ended up. It may take an eventual breakup of the megacarriers to see significant forward progress. While having 10 network carriers that could get you from Raleigh to Los Angeles in 1999* was overkill, having only three and three quarters serious national airlines has been way too much shrinkage in the other direction. AA/TW, US/HP, and DL/NW were completely defensible. It was the CO/UA deal that started the true lunacy; stop that one and things are in an infinitely more rational place.

*US Airways, Delta, United, American, Continental, Northwest, Southwest, TWA, America West, Midway