Would it make sense from an ops standpoint for United to acquire Jetblue, and could United start a LCC with smaller hubs?
NOTE: I AM NOT SAYING THIS IS TRUE
Edit: Tl:Dr below
Now there are about 2 trillion flaws with this that i'm sure people will highlight, but hear me out. When I think about it, United doesn't really have a perfect hub network. SFO is mainly United, but it is shared with others, especially Alaskan. LAX is a great hub, however I'm not going to count it as other airlines have much bigger operations there. That being said, both have been great for United's TPAC network, especially with Australian and New Zealand flights at LAX. DEN is possible United's best hub at the moment. They have been investing in it to save the baggage issues, and it is turning into their biggest hub, even though they do share with Frontier. ORD might house the soul of United, however it can't accommodate that many long haul flights and they have always been limited as while it makes sense for it to be their "fortress" hub, they still share with American. IAH is another great hub which is currently being renovated, however to be quite honest, it is only really helpful for latin american/caribbean flights. After all, Houston probably isn't the first place you think of when someone says America. EWR is great for United, but let's all be honest, everyone would rather fly into JFK, even if it's the worse airport. IAD is another great hub for United, and in my opinion it is better suited to house United TATL ops. In recap, United really only has 3 good hubs, in my opinion, one of with it shares, and one of which not really being the best hub as a flagship location.
Now we move on to Jetblue (yes I know technically they don't have hubs but whatever). While Jetblue doesn't have a great network when looking west, they do have a good east coast network. Their hubs are all across the East coast, including two that could be major for United, JFK, MCO, and FLL. These three could serve to significantly increase United operations. While Jetblue in JFK isn't the best for TATL, they have been sending 32qs to Heathrow (yes yes mainly from boston from what i can tell but whatever). In addition, JFK is almost like America's flagship airport. JFK had been a hub for both Pan Am and TWA, and many could say those were two of the most influential airlines for the world. In addition, the MCO and FLL hubs could both aid in latin america/caribbean etc. traffic, and with the rush of people into Florida, especially Disney World.
Now onto the LCC topic. United currently has a hub in Guam, and with such an acquisition they could also get hubs in Boston and San Juan. While the latter 2 could help, I will currently focus on the guam aspect. One of the cheapest ways currently to get TATL is to go from the US, have a small layover in Reykjavik, and continue on to Europe. My idea is to expand on this, with TPAC low cost services either stopping in Guam, or maybe making multiple stops akin to the Island hopper with maybe Guam, Pohnpei, Majuro, and of course Honolulu. While people from America may not be so keen on this, I am sure there are people in the locations served who would gladly take such a low cost service. While distribution onto the route could be hard, my personal thought would be to have Eva, ANA, Air India, and Vistara, along with other United partners to shuttle passengers to some locations, probably Manila, where this route could then start. In fact, when taking the 4700 nm range for the 321xlr, it might just make it to Honolulu.
Map with 321xlr range from MNL
If not to honolulu, it could definetely do it with one stop in between somewhere, likely at their hub in Guam.
What are your thoughts on this, because I would actually be quite keen to learn what people think. In addition, could some of these ideas benefit from United's long term plans? Remember that they do not have the 777x on order, even though it seems United would be the kind of airline to order it, and that they do have 350s and Boom Overtures on order, along with the 32q and 321xlrs.
TLDR: United acquiring Jetblue could be an interesting prospect for expansion, and they could make a TPAC LCC utilising their Guam hub, mainly catering to Asian passengers.