Except that the perfect time for WN to do that was during BK2 - the old stock was still trading and they could have bought US for a few hundred million. Not a terrible price to pay just for the LGA/DCA slots - they could have just parked all the planes, dumped facilities they didn't want, etc. Now they'd pay something over $1.25 billion and couldn't dump a thing easily.
Well things were very different 3 or 4 years - all of the Legacies weren't threatening to merge into 2 Super airlines and eat the competition. WN doesn't have to "dump" anything if it consolidates. All they would need to do is reduce flights by around 25% at big duplicate US/WN hubs like PHX and LAS and reduce other duplicate cities by a smaller %. That'd trim the fat and create a lean and mean airline - still probably the largest domestically. Most cities would retain the majority of current services, but at less capacity. Then they could restructure the East Coast to feed and grow PHL international services (which they desperately need for future viability), with some spill into BWI. I can just imagine how WN would schedule having control of PHL A, B and C compared to the chaotic situation with US last year. They'd probably get 2 turns in A for every 1 US gets today. The major stumbling block I see with a US/WN merger or buyout is successfully combining 2 very different cultures - East Coast US and WN. All you have to do is read this Board to realize the potential integration problems.
They don't necessarily have to dump anything if they "consolidate" with the right carrier, but if they bought US without making major changes their highly successful business model goes right out the window. WN's success has been, continues to be, and more than likely will be centered on doing what they do as good or better than anyone - offering reasonable cost transportation by virtue of being very efficient. Becoming another big legacy type carrier, even if it only 1/2 the operation, isn't in WN's best interest so buying a legacy carrier (especially one with US' problems) without dumping all that makes it a legacy carrier would not make sense.
