Quote Originally Posted by charlie50 View Post
That make more scents than anything else ive heard .
From a news article........

So what exactly did Alaska Airlines buy?


Although Virgin America operates a fleet of 60 Airbus A320 jets, the airline owns only five of them with rest leased from various companies around the world.


As a result, Virgin America's most valuable assets are its terminal space at San Francisco International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport, along with landing rights at Love Field in Dallas, LaGuardia in New York, and Reagan National in Washington, D.C., Bhaskara said.


And then there's the cachet of the Virgin brand, which brings intangible value to the airline.


At first glance, forking out $4 billion for some terminal space, landing rights, and a few jets makes little sense, but a deeper dive shows that Alaska's move, though risky, may be a smart buy for three key reasons.


First, the acquisition of the San Francisco-based airline keeps Virgin America and its sizable West Coast presence out of JetBlue's control. New York-based JetBlue has a strong East Coast and transcontinental business, but it still lags behind Alaska, Virgin America, and Southwest in its ability to serve the western United States.


Acquiring Virgin would have given JetBlue instant scale on the West Coast and bolster its already formidable transcontinental business.