TopBunk: Was at a pilot meeting with Walsh last night where he stated that he had done 32 press interviews last week. On reading the resulting articles he remembered being at about 30 of them, one of those he didn't recollect was the one alleging a merger with AA.
THIS IS TOTALLY UNTRUE.
Some of the other reports do quote him as saying that he'd like closer cooperation with AA. That is plausible, if it is now to be permitted in the current or future regulatory regime. I imagine that someone's misinterpreted this in the report quoted in the original post.