Wheaton News

Wheaton sophomore Steven Kimball ’18 recently had an article about a potential airline merger published by Airline Reporter.

The article, titled “Is a Merger Between Spirit and Frontier Inevitable?,” looks at the potential benefits and implications of a union between two of the top ultra discount airlines in the United States—Florida-based Spirit and Colorado-based Frontier, which together operate nearly 500 domestic flights daily, according to the piece.

Kimball, an economics major minoring in English, has a strong interest in aviation, in particular airline finance, and plans to obtain his private pilot license after graduation.

“The airline industry is so compelling to me because there has been so much consolidation over the past 15 years,” Kimball said. “I think that the major four carriers—Southwest, American, United and Delta—will have a hard time with mergers on the basis of antitrust, but there will most likely be a huge amount of consolidation among smaller carriers attempting to straighten their network.”

The Clarksville, Tenn. native has written several articles on trends in the industry and said he was thrilled to have his latest piece accepted for publication.

“Airline Reporter is one of the leading sources within the industry, and it’s frequently cited by Fox News, NBC and ABC, among others, so it was incredibly exciting,” he said.