It would be easy to find out. Just find out when Paulsen made sure Goldman was out of it, followed by the dumping of AirTran by his hedge fund buddies. Talk about insider trading. The Treasury Secy is the kingpin of insider trading.
I didn't know that Paulson and company were FL employees.
To me, the only risk is that of entering Chapter 11. If the company remains solvent, the stock will go higher. Currently, the balance sheet does not look bad.
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My $$$ was on Frontier or Airtran to be next to die in this war..buts its looking like a suprise victim maybe MIDWEST EXPRESS..When the C.O.O. just suddendly resigns after a few months on the job..some weird stuff is going on at Midwest IMHO..Look for a Huge "Suprise'" real real soon..
My $$$ was on Frontier or Airtran to be next to die in this war..buts its looking like a suprise victim maybe MIDWEST EXPRESS..When the C.O.O. just suddendly resigns after a few months on the job..some weird stuff is going on at Midwest IMHO..Look for a Huge "Suprise'" real real soon..
Sorry to rain on your parade, but he left due to good old fashioned ambition. Joe Kolshak left to become S-VP of Operations at UA.
It's not going to be Airtran or Southwest.....................more likely one of the legacies some of you love so much that will be gone. It wouldn't take much for one to fall sooner than expected.
No, I'm not including Southwest in that group. Airtran though will outlast, I'm convinced, certain legacy airlines. I well remember the shutdown of Eastern (Frank Lorenzo's debacle), and no one thought it could happen. With today's markets and related economic events, who knows, but I do think some of the legacies are headed for a huge fall unless sense returns to management.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jiburi
Of the legacies, I think UA is the next one. I'd give it 66% chance.
Signs:
Older fuel inefficient aircrafts (737, 747, 757, 767, etc)
UA's Merge at all cost attempts
Latest announcement of significant cut back (staff & aircrafts)
AA isn't too far off with aggressive new baggage fees and other fees.
It's large fleet of MD80 aircrafts obviously don't help.
Jiburi
UA is the "most obviously hurting" airline in North America. That being said, I doubt that anyone is going bankrupt before the fall. Which carrier falls next is going to depend heavily on their performance this summer. If I had to bet, my money would be on AA, as I strongly suspect that their $15 first bag fee, etc. will drive away customers in droves. (yes, many will book with them - my question is: How many will voluntarily book trips with AA after experiencing their version of "customer service"?).
[Full disclosure - I have refused to do business with AA (Anti-American) since they showed their true colors during the Wright Amendment battles awhile back; I'm trying to keep my distaste for their corporate philosophy out of my analysis, but if I haven't succeeded in doing so I apologize.]
As for me, I recently discovered that I have ~20,000 miles on *A from a circle pacific trip last year that didn't get credited to UA somehow. Given the current situation, I have chosen to wait and see how UA does this summer before I decide whether to credit those miles to UA or start another *A account. If I'm really lucky, CO will get accepted to *A soon enough that I can put those miles into my OnePass account - unfortunately, that's not how my luck tends to run...
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Given that UA has decided to follow AA's lead and "enhance" their product with a first bag fee, I have to change my mind and say that I believe that UA is now leading the race to collapse first. Maybe when I go to Vegas I can find a place to take wagers on this!
I wanted to post this earlier, but I forgot which thread I had put the prior post in.
Given that UA has decided to follow AA's lead and "enhance" their product with a first bag fee, I have to change my mind and say that I believe that UA is now leading the race to collapse first. Maybe when I go to Vegas I can find a place to take wagers on this!
I wanted to post this earlier, but I forgot which thread I had put the prior post in.
How does US' decision to charge $2 for non-alcoholic drinks fit into this discussion?
I am glad AirTran has not pulled any of these crazy stunts.
Location: Westchester Co, NY or Rio Grande Valley, TX or ???
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NEMMRRC
How does US' decision to charge $2 for non-alcoholic drinks fit into this discussion?
I am glad AirTran has not pulled any of these crazy stunts.
US is already known for fairly poor service; they also are sufficiently small enough that their daily cash burn (even if their planes are empty) is far less than AA or UA. US will survive longer than a few other legacies in the current environment (barring some very unlikely "act of God" incident).
As an aside, I flew US this spring LGA-CLT and back; on the way down I tried their "upgrade to first class for $50 per 500 miles". I wasn't impressed - since LGA-CLT is just over 500 miles, it cost $100 (AirTran would have charged $40 for an upgrade of this length); the seat was no more comfortable than AirTran's Biz Class, the snacks were not as good as AirTran's (except that US serves a large size of Biscoff in first class), and the service was not as friendly. If I have to fly down there again, I'll probably take a US non-stop again unless both 1) I can get a bargain on FL and 2) FL's connecting flight schedule fits my needs.
"I think it's more likely that any large airline bankruptcies would occur next year," said Philip Baggaley of Standard & Poor's, who has assigned his lowest ratings to U.S. Airways, AirTran Airways (AAI) and JetBlue Airways (JBLU). "At least at current fuel prices, most of them have enough liquidity to get through several more quarters. But it could get rather more uncomfortable by 2009. Oil prices are the largest variable."
