A month ago, I'd have said we're gonna get taken over inside of a few years. After the investors day reveals, assuming we can pull it off as advertised, I think we're looking good and keeping our "stand alone" status at least for 5-7 years until the next big wave comes along. I don't think Emirates wants the US domestic market enough to buy into us, and there are much better investment opportunities for them closer to home. They'll continue to reap the benefits of the codeshare agreement, though. I hear our DTW-BOS is basically a feed for their A380s.
I'd prefer we stay our own entity, and with Virgin America's IPO, I don't see that merger as quite as feasible as 6 months ago. Delta would bring some serious DOJ issues up in JFK, and they may wind up just having to sell off a majority of the slots they'd get from us, which would kick the door wide open for SWA. I think the DOJ issues in JFK might actually be protecting us from a merger at this point since it's such a gamble as to what they'd want in order to approve it. An Alaska merger would be great as would Hawaiian. I actually DON'T want a Delta merger. They'd purely be buying us for Carribbean flying and slots in other airports, the culture of jetBlue would cease to exist and we'd probably wind being treated like red headed step children by both management and "OG" Delta pilots who were "hired, not acquired." Could probably extend that same sentiment to United and American as well. Spirit or Republic? God, I hope not. If I wanted to do that to customers, I'd work at Wal-Mart (no offense
@ZapBrannigan). SWA would be a little less of a headache, but it would still be filled with suck given the track record with AirTran.
So, I guess what I'm hoping for (since I don't have much control other than voting on a CBA with a scope clause) is either no merger at all or one with Alaska, Hawaiian or Virgin America. In that order.
