Virgin America Elevate - VX to buy F9 fleet?

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/08/10/daily23.html

Virgin America Inc., billionaire Richard Branson's airline, may be interested in buying Frontier Airlines' Airbus fleet if Southwest Airlines succeeds in its bid for the Denver carrier, according to a news report Tuesday.

Virgin America CEO David Cush told Bloomberg News in an interview that his airline, which flies Airbus planes, may be interested in the 40 Airbus jets owned by Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc.

Huh. That might save some cash on the expansion. I bet they'd want F9's mechanics, too- they're really sharp, from what I hear.

Something tells me that Southwest will likely not attempt to sell Frontier's planes to Virgin America, domestic competitor. More likely, they'll want to sell to a foreign operator like Easyjet. Why would they want more domestic capacity in the system when they can just as easily get rid of it to another part of the world. Southwest competes directly with Virgin America on four routes so why would they want to strengthen a competitor? Perhaps if VX offered Southwest a better deal than someone, Southwest would consider it.

Frankly, I don't really think VX is in any position for major acquisitions. Their cash position is low and they don't really have much collateral as a significant of their fleet is leased. Maybe they'll buy a couple planes but certainly not the entire fleet. Eight A318's, four A319's, two A320's and 5 Q400's are owned, likely with a balance still owed. The rest are all leased. That's taken from their May 2009 10-K. Although their cash position is, six aircraft (A319's & A320's) seem more manageable than the entire fleet. Perhaps that's what Cush meant.

Virgin America reportedly plans to buy Frontier Airlines’ Airbus fleet of 40 aircraft, if Southwest Airlines succeeds with the acquisition of Frontier (San Francisco Business Times, 11-Aug-09).

Frankly, I don't really think VX is in any position for major acquisitions. Their cash position is low and they don't really have much collateral as a significant of their fleet is leased. Maybe they'll buy a couple planes but certainly not the entire fleet.

I would not put it past SRB and the VX management team to find additional capital. I am sort of dubious that VX will hit their profitability goals in this environment (and this has to be a concern going forward), given how soft fares are and the problems established carriers are having, but they've done well enough in terms of grabbing mindshare through a well-received product that they might be able to come up with some more VC.

Eight A318's, four A319's, two A320's and 5 Q400's are owned, likely with a balance still owed.

They probably don't want the 318s (since with F seats, the planes wouldn't seat a lot of Y pax), but I could see them grabbing the 319s and 320s.

The thing is right now, the VX fleet is pretty taped out if they want to add destinations. They will want to add planes at some point. F9's planes might be a lower-cost way to do that than other ways.

Something tells me that Southwest will likely not attempt to sell Frontier's planes to Virgin America, domestic competitor

As quite a few of the planes are leased, Southwest wouldn't have much of a say in it.

Well, WN REALLY won't have a say in it, since Republic won the bid. Looks like they will be building a major out of DEN and MIL to go with their regional operations...

Does anyone know how many Airbuses VX has on order? More 319s or 320s?