Originally Posted by sdsearch

A buyout anytime soon (if ever) is quite unrealistic. They haven't even finished "digesting" VX. And meanwhile, a merger of AS(/VX) and B6 (Jet Blue) would be less likely to pass anti-trust, because B6 is much more major player than VX was.

In fact, I'd say a revived AA partnership (on new terms) is more likely than a B6 buyout, even though they're both unlikely.

Now, a B6 partnership, that's a totally different story. There is precedent: AA has a partnership only on some routes with B6 about half a decade ago.

Originally Posted by eponymous_coward

Why?

WN went from being an airline flying to 3 cities in Texas to the way they are today with zero partnerships with legacy airlines. AS has obviously chosen growth over partnerships and staying in a PNW niche with the VX purchase. So why can't we see if they grow?

Quite frankly B6 doesn't bring much to the table to AS, nor does AS for B6. A lot of transcon action is SfO/LAX-NYC. Obviously AS and B6 are competing there. Both airlines have weak presence midcon and off their coasts. There isn't a ton of pax flow Pacific NW connecting out of South Florida or OUT of NYC (SEA-JFK to someplace like say ORF isn't a great connection compared to ORD, and B6 isn't really building JFK as a connecting hub for AS pax). A dumbbell shaped network that treats 90% of the US as flyover country (or forces backtracking connections) isn't a great network.