Seeing the chatter on the pilot forums that both Alaska and Southwest might be sniffing at Spirit, and honestly at this point either one feels like a best-case outcome compared to liquidation.
For Alaska, it actually makes a ton of sense instant East Coast footprint with FLL, a bigger NYC presence, more international reach, and they’ve already built the muscle for integrations with Hawaiian. Could see them ditching the “Alaska” name and going full Atmos if they really want to position themselves as the fifth major.
For Southwest, it’s basically a shortcut to the A321neo. Their CEO keeps saying they want to go to Europe on a narrowbody, and the A321 is the only thing that really gets them there. Picking up Spirit means picking up the jets, the orders, and a major foothold in FLL and NYC. And yeah, in both scenarios you can imagine someone going after JetBlue later.
Either way, something feels like it’s coming soon. Really hoping it’s not liquidation.
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