Merger rumors continue...

What's notable about the article is that when a lousy contract is brought back to the pilots and rejected the one responsible resigns immediately. With the catch all industrial TWU the responsible just laughs at the membership. Good article!
 
For the sake of a friend of mine who flies for Frontier, I hope the rumor about a merger with Southwest is true.  Frontier is a good little airline, but they are struggling financially.  Main drawback to such a merger?  WN is all Boeing.  Frontier is all Airbus (with a few rjs thrown in here and there, I think).  But then, isn't JB all Airbus also?
 
I doubt the Feds would approve JetBlue and WN merging and then you have the fleet issue with B6 being all Airbus.
 
It's been argued before that Alaska is the best merger option for fleet compatibility with WN, and it is my favorite choice.

However if the goal of the merger is only to acquire slots at certain east coast airports and eliminate a competitor there, then it would be Jet Blue.
I personally don't see WN merging with an airline of that size with that many aircraft which are not Boeing 737's.
WN has already seen how much it takes to get rid of AirTran 717's (and they were only leased, not owned), and it would be completely contradictory to the very long standing doctrine
of keeping one main fleet type if they kept the JetBlue fleet. One can argue that the 737 Max is a completely different aircraft, but Jet Blue fly's Airbus 320, 321 and Embraer 190's.


I also see no advantage to merging with Frontier. They are a very small competitor to WN with nothing to offer in value.
Someone will have to explain to me the rational for that kind of a move.
 
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JB and Frontier would be terrible mergers when it comes to fleet choices. However, if SWA sees the Slots as the major issue, I could see it being done.  I agree with WNMECH as Alaska would be the best merger over all, it would also be the most expensive one of the 3.  I am really curious to where this reporter got his info from.  A little odd that he is the only one to report it. Or was he just throwing some words within his title to generate hits and readers?  That's how the rumor mills get started.  I still say by 2020 we will hear something about a merger...
 
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swamt said:
Whatch this very closely 
 
I am starting to notice that management across the industry is starting to play the same games. 
 
If they would have added 100 new airplanes you would have the exact same thing Delta was telling the pilots in 2012. Gotta get a contract done NOW buying AS or B6 or even AA! none of which happened or had a real shot of happening. 
 
its all a carrot, the company will do what it wants for mergers or aircraft. Labor doesn't buy airplanes or airlines. 
 
 
and I imagine the DOJ will sue anyone who tries to merge out side of the regional industry (which still likes ripe for consolidation)  
 
If SWA really wanted to get a contract done with the groups that remain, then they would.  It has been the company that has been doing all this stalling for the last 3, 4 years plus.  As a collective group, the Pilots, Mechanics, F/A's and ramp all need to band together and demand full retro for the delay that the company purposely put in place in order to deliver to the share holders in the last couple of years. No retro, NO contract...
 
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swamt said:
If SWA really wanted to get a contract done with the groups that remain, then they would.  It has been the company that has been doing all this stalling for the last 3, 4 years plus.  As a collective group, the Pilots, Mechanics, F/A's and ramp all need to band together and demand full retro for the delay that the company purposely put in place in order to deliver to the share holders in the last couple of years. No retro, NO contract...
I agree with you completely. 
 
I'm just saying they are going to start tossing out the carrot and the stick to get you guys to sign an worse deal. Mergers, airplanes etc. etc. have little to nothing to do with labor groups. 
 
If there's going to be a merger with Frontier, it will be with Spirit. Same mindset, and some folks who've worked at both carriers in senior positions.

A B6-WN merger? Won't say never, but the more likely outcome would be B6 & VX.

I think WN is out in the cold as far as US carriers go, but I wouldn't rule out a cross-border merger.
 
I think WN is out in the cold as far as US carriers go, but I wouldn't rule out a cross-border merger.
Why do you rule out the chance of a WN and Alaska merger and how legal is a "cross-border merger"?
How about an example of what you are thinking?
 
I wouldn't rule it out entirely, but the bigger question should be what does Alaska bring to Southwest that they can't already do themselves?

Aside from flying the same aircraft type, it's not exactly complementary. From a network standpoint, they already serve most of the same markets on the west coast.

Eventually, someone is going to attempt to merge with either WestJet or Volaris. Southwest is the logical choice, and there's existing precedent for this in the railroad sector.

Both the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National own large operating subsidiaries in the US who are subject to oversight from the DOT, and fall under the RLA. The Kansas City Southern owns the second largest railroad in Mexico. There's a current rumor that another of the large US railroads might be looking to merge with CP.

If the governments on both sides of our borders as well as the US can allow that type of cross-border ownership, surely there's not much of a justification left to prevent cross-border ownership of an airline.

That's why it wouldn't surprise me to see WN also pursue one (or two) of the cross-border LCC's, and in the process, find an unusual ally in Delta, who would probably not hesitate to take over AeroMexico.
 
You do know that there are limits on foreign ownership of US airlines?

Can't own more than 25% of the voting stock and can't own more than 49% of the total stock.

Don't you remember all the ownership changes VX had to do to get approval?
 
No, I'm completely dense and ignorant of the current laws, UW....

Instead of thinking inside your "this is how it has been forever box" maybe you should think about the potential for ownership caps to change, particularly between NAFTA zone companies.
 
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