MilesBuzz! - America West files for more taxpayer money

Here we go, folks. A carrier who should be allowed to die a natural death is planning to use more of our money to stay in the air...

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/011113/n13146222_1.html

hey, what's another $400 million that we will never see repaid...

I like HP, but their model's absolutely unworkable in this environment and as a precondition for receiving more federal funds, they ought to have to jump through the same hoops any cash-negative firm faces when it goes before a potential venture capital provider, e.g. show how they're going to make money and when.

I think it's a demented use of tax dollars simply to postpone the collapse of a major airline from February '02 to May '02.

their biz model was unworkable in the pre 9/11 marketplace. they've just been squeezed hard by WN in PHX. they can't afford to be full service, yet they can't "out southwest" southwest. from a cost standpoint they have a good model, but they can't generate the yields they need in order to profit.

I hate to see any airline fail, and I hate to see a OnePass partner go, but that said . . . I'd really be upset if there is more dole for HP without being convinced that it will simply delay the inevitable.

The walking dead, like HP, make the other airlines even more unprofitable because they offer unrealistically low fares so no other airline can profitably serve the given route.

It is essential for the overall health of the industry that walking dead such as HP are gone. Then competitors can start to make a buck and rebuild their balance sheets.

I'm just wondering if I'm gonna end up kissing my 500k Flight Fund miles goodbye.

You can kiss America Worst goodbye, and USAirways as well. ****, I've still got some miles with them, I better use them up.

I have a ticket to Mexico on HP for Feb...what happens if they go under? Would they rebook me on another airline at least?

flyinmike -

why don't you turn those miles into CO tickets for as far out as possible? whts the worst that could happen, you pay to redeposit?

katz -

history says no. if they go belly up, they likely will not reaccomodate you on someone else. sorry, can you change it now to CO or NW? but with the new money, they'll probably be around thru Feb anyway.