So are you for or are you against mergers? If almost all mergers go though, how is it their tough stance that blocks mergers? Obama was president in 2016 when the AS VX merger happened. In terms of recent mergers and acquisitions, the last couple of democrat presidencies have allowed huge mergers (think Time Warner, Sprint and T-Mobile and more). Again, most airline mergers historically have been under bad economies and with one or both companies struggling.
JB and B6 could have gone though, there were lots of errors along the way and eventually, pretty substantiated rumors that JB was actively tanking the deal as they saw the writing on the wall with B6. AS knows how to merge, they have acquired several companies in their history and they know how to do it. I promise you with the entirety of my heart, that if AS filed plans to kill inner island flying in Hawaii for this merger, there would have been absolutely zero chance the merger went though.
Zero…
All of those airlines you listed, were absorbed and the parent airline grew, including AS. AS didn’t file plans to kill the VX business model, again think more to love. You can’t apply the same lens to every merger just because JB and B6 was denied.