RJSAviator76

Not one. No mergers.... organic growth!

At least my wishlist...

ZapBrannigan

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WHACKMASTER

Spirit. They go to the areas that SWA would really like to expand in (Central & South America) and they are becoming an increasingly competitive PIA which is exactly what the last airline that SWA bought was becoming as well. Writing's on the wall.

FlyGirl727

Entirely different operation. They cater to cost conscious travelers that really don't understand ancillary charges until it's too late. They fly Airbus, and they rate dead last in consumer complaints and on time performance. I don't see merging with them would have any positive effect. The airports spirit operates aren't capacity restricted so LUV could easily go to the same airports and duplicate routes. The most logical merger partner would have been Alaska. I might be tempted to think Hawaiian may add something to LUV. Thoughts?.

WHACKMASTER

Who cares if they're a different product? They will be assimilated into The Borg just like the last airline and their product will go bye bye. Increasingly thorn in their side competitor gone and Latin America operation gained.

Spirit customers will rejoice at the better customer service just like many AirTran passengers were sad to see a better product get absorbed into The Borg.

A hundred newer Airbuses will be nothing to find a home for (unfortunately).

C130driver

Hawaiian? Interesting, would SW adopt their WB aircraft as well? Seems for years southwest had capitalized on minimizing costs by maintaining one NB aircraft. Might delight some guys that are sick of the 737.

Salukidawg

I would say either AK (kill two birds with one stone on the West coast with that one), or B6. Also a possible Copa acquisition as a long shot possibility as well. I doubt NK because of what has already been discussed (different ULCC product). NK/F9 would be better and more probable merger partners anyway.

PowerShift

For an airline industry outsider, why would SWA not at least copy what Allegiant is doing? It seems that SWA could offer the same flights to/from MCO/PHX/LAS to the same cities that Allegiant is serving. People love the non stop service. I would think SWA could dominate those markets.

Cost? Operations? Local maint? What's stopping them?

e6bpilot

It's just not the SWA way. Other than a few seasonal routes and vacation destinations, our schedule is the same every single day with some variation on weekends and holidays. Customers depend on that and love it. We can't do daily service like that and expect the revenue required to keep an airplane on that route.
We do a lot of Vegas flying from smallish cities like MAF, AMA, etc, but they are all through flights from big stations.
Have you ever flown Allegiant? When they cancel, the next flight is in 2-5 days. They are hub and spoke with planes sitting in Vegas on off days, we are mostly point to point with planes sitting for four hours at night at a hundred overnight stations.
It's like the guys here that wonder why we don't do vacation charter flying. I am one hundred percent certain that our network planning folks have taken a look at that and discarded it as a bad idea. This company has a lot of warts, but how it runs its domestic network is pretty freaking good.

Deadbone

Fuel prices are low and airline stock prices are high. Not an ideal time for a takeover even if one were in the cards. Why pay premium? Wait for the "blood in the streets" type market.