Originally Posted by
Eastbay1K
Aaaaaah. I can't get this bloody song out of my head now. So, I figured I'd ruin your weekend, too, as it will play incessantly. I figure it is also a good song to sing, internally, or very quietly, behind the mask, when things aren't going perfectly onboard.
♫♫ You take the good, you take the bad,
you take them both and there you have
Alaska flights, Alaska flights.
There's a time you got to go and show
You're flyin' now you know about
Alaska flights, Alaska flights.
When the service never seems
to be livin' up to your dreams
And suddenly you're finding out
Alaska flights aren't all about you, yooo oooh oooh ooo. ♫♫
Did anyone read Live and let's Fly" post today on Boarding Area.com?
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Travel » How We Could See Only Five U.S. Airlines Survive Our Dystopian Era
TRAVELHOW WE COULD SEE ONLY FIVE U.S. AIRLINES SURVIVE OUR DYSTOPIAN ERA
MATTHEW KLINT JULY 17, 2020
17 COMMENTS 
COVID-19 cases are surging in the USA, antibodies are now thought to only last 2-4 months, and the efficacy of a potential vaccination doubtful. Let’s imagine a world in which things do not get better. What will this pandemic mean for U.S. airline survival?
My Airline Pandemic Survival Predictions For A Worst-Case Scenario
I hate to be grim on a Friday afternoon, but let’s be honest. It is increasingly looking like COVID-19 is here to stay. And since we, the USA, botched the initial response, we are stuck with a problem of rolling economic calamity or rolling death counts and economic calamity. Whatever happens in November will not change that overnight.
Some scientists are linking
COVID-19 to brain damage. Let’s imagine a more virulent strain this winter that impacts more people. Hospitals fill up. Death counts pile up. A subset of the population, mostly younger healthier people, is able to fight on with it. Business travel dies. Leisure travel remains restricted with limited air bubbles and a huge overall backwards step in our ability to freely travel between nations even internally within the United States.
Then what? What if 60-90% reduction in airline demand becomes the new norm, not a temporary problem?
Well, news this week suggests a path forward in which the strong become stronger and the weak band together or die. I think five major airlines would survive:
- Delta – the strongest airline in the USA today will survive as a stand-alone airline
- American + Alaska + JetBlue (the new American) – American would solidify its partnership with JetBlue and Alaska to offer a more comprehensive route map across the USA.
- United – United is already the strongest international carrier and will become the primary international airline of the USA, serving six continents in a much more limited capacity than it did pre-pandemic. Domestic flights would be whittled down.
- Allegiant + Frontier + Spirit + Sun Country (The new Spirit Frontier) – a combined ultra-low-cost airline that would offer cheap fares on point-to-point routes across the country appealing to leisure travelers
- Southwest – also a strong airline, Southwest would survive as a stand-alone airline and preserve much of its current route map.
I’m not including Hawaiian Airlines in this list, but expect it would survive under subsidies from the Hawaiian government.
If things get even worse we could see the nationalization of carriers, a return to regulated routes and pricing, and a divvying up of route maps to keep each airline shielded from the sort of intense competition that has marked air travel in the preceding decade.
REALLY ? American he is purporting a merger with AA