Last week Virgin America's stock shot up following speculation that they were looking to be taken over. The US airline industry is turning record profits right now, so it seems like Virgin America probably thinks they’re doing as well as they can, given that they’re looking to sell. On Saturday it was reported that a…
Continue reading: Signs Of The Alaska & Virgin America Merger Happening…
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Alaska's gonna have to take on significant debt to pull this off. Feels like a move to simply increase size without regard to actual operational synergies.
Not to say you are wrong, but this means nothing. I've gone on an registered domains I never intend on using, but may down the road use. If Alaska was even remotely interested in acquiring Virgin, the first thing to do would be buy a few domains for $10/each. And just fyi, both virginjetblue.com and jetbluevirgin.com are registered.
Haha @Kris must have just gone on Google Domains and registered for VirginJetBlue.com to be redirected to this exact page
For what it's worth - FlyingBetterTogether.com can be tied back to unitedcoursecorrection.com (which goes to the a similar WP login page) & a number of similar non-aviation domains. This all points back to the company Haystack Needle - http://www.haystackneedle.com/ - whose website says they support "leaders in marketing, corporate communications, crisis communications and investor relations by creating brands, events, websites, videos, apps, presentations and photography, alongside content management, digital reputation and print campaigns".
If AlaskaVirgin.com was pointing to FlyingBetterTogether.com, then it's likely that one of the parties has retained Haystack Needle for digital work related to merger PR.
After closer examination, I am now seeing why the deal isnt totally crazy:
1. Buying Virgin is more about keeping JetBlue out of the West Coast - Delta is now starting to be a major west coast player with its Seattle hub, and Alaska cant afford another competitor, especially since JetBlue is so well run.
2.VX only owns 8 aircraft anyway, while the rest are leased, so phasing out the A320 wouldnt cost too much or take too much effort.
3. It would also put Alaska as the fourth biggest US airline, ahead of JetBlue.
Wow the flying better together website is up (as of now) with fact sheets and lots of info.
Deal close Jan 1 2017
Single operating certificate 1Q 2018