An article in today’s WSJ says two things. One, we should hear more about a Delta/Northwest deal in the next week or so. Yawn. Two, things are “heating up” between United and Continental.

Unless upper management at Continental stays intact as part of such a deal, I’m not signing on — regardless of how much money Glenn throws at me to do otherwise.

On another front, the American/ Alaska rumors simply won’t stop. Today birds are telling us that Frontier may also be in the mix.

Would certainly be a quick and, I might add, very dirty way, to finally give American that western presence they have lusted after for ……oh…..how long? Yes, visions of Reno Air and Air Cal rear their ugly heads. Would also give American a slew of nice new aircraft, although they would be of different flavors.  But when all is said and done, that alone might be worth more on the Ouija board of potential match-up bingo than anything else.

As I have said before — don’t try and figure out any of these things by questioning route match-ups, fleets, union pairings, or other rational measures. It will drive you nuts. And frankly, it’s not worth it.

Nope, as Dick Vitale might say, “It’s all about survival baby!”

Speaking of, good to hear Dick return in his fine form last night for the Duke/UNC match-up.

FYI, the biggest movers in the airline sector today are AMR, parent of American, Alaska, JetBlue and Southwest.

Speaking of Southwest – As I mentioned in last week’s PBB, the hedge fund parent of ATA said in a recent SEC filing that it is considering unloading its passenger operation.

Yes, that same passenger operation that Southwest now codeshares with.

This brings up a couple of interesting things to chew on. On, there are reports that Aloha Airlines might be interested in snapping up the passenger operation. That would, of course, depend on what Aloha mega-investor Ron Burkle decides he wants to do. But it certainly could complicate the already nutso Hawaiian airline landscape.

But also, what will Southwest do?

Would be a much more valuable deal for Southwest if ATA had not already sold off those nice slots on the East Coast to AirTran.

Ticker: (NYSE:LUV); (NYSE:CAL); (Nasdaq: UAUA); (NYSE:ALK); (Nasdaq: JBLU);  (NYSE:NWA); (NYSE:DAL).