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I still think JetBlue was a better fit. Alaska's a west coast, all 737 fleet. Now they own another west coast airline (i.e. they overlap) with a ton of Airbus.
by btgeekboy 11y ago
I still think JetBlue was a better fit. Alaska's a west coast, all 737 fleet. Now they own another west coast airline (i.e. they overlap) with a ton of Airbus. Alaska's probably getting something good for their $2.6b, but I haven't figured out what exactly.
- HelloMcFly 11y agoOne of the main reasons speculated why Alaska is doing this is to make it significantly more difficult for another airline (primarily Delta) to take them over.
- djcapelis 11y agoApparently Virgin only owns 8 of those planes and the rest are leased, so the speculation I read is Alaska is just likely to change them all over to 737s eventually. And if they have the capital to operate that same system using purchased planes and not leased planes, then they'll be running the same routes with more favorable finances than Virgin was able to.
- arcticbull 11y agoAgreed. JetBlue has what Alaska is missing: An east coast network and a very solid trans-continental product to compete on the SEA/SFO/LAX-JFK flights. And they both operate comparable Airbus equipment where Alaska is an all-Boeing shop. That's going to make finding technical cost reductions difficult.
- kin 11y agoI agree. As a flyer of all 3 airlines, I thought JetBlue was pretty much just Virgin America in blue color.
- Turing_Machine 11y agoAlaska Airlines flies to a lot of places that aren't on the west coast. https://www.alaskaair.com/travelinfo/destinations https://www.alaskaair.com/travelinfo/destinations Also, they've recently put in for a route to Cuba, if I remember right.
- mindcrime 11y agoThey're recently added a route between Seattle and Raleigh/Durham (NC). http://www.rdu.com/press-release/alaska-airlines-to-launch-service-at-raleigh-durham-international-airport-with-non-stop-service-to-seattle/ http://www.rdu.com/press-release/alaska-airlines-to-launch-s...
- vinay427 11y agoTheir main hub is SEA. I presume the commenter was referring to flights between cities not on the west coast.
- JamilD 11y agoAccording to the investor slide deck [0], it's to get into the California market, which they're not dominant in. This acquisition will mean that Alaska will be #2 at SFO, and a major player at LAX. Virgin America's aircraft are almost all leased, so they'll be easy to get rid of and consolidate into Boeing aircraft. [0] http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?t=1&item=VHlwZT0yfFBhcmVudElEPTUyMjI1MjV8Q2hpbGRJRD02MjgzODc= http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?t=1&item=VHlwZT0yf...
- capkutay 11y agoThat's too bad. I always thought flights on Airbus's are a lot smoother during take off.