Originally Posted by
jk88usa
What other US airlines are actually reporting a quarterly loss right now? (And that’s not rhetorical...I really don’t know).
But WN is making record profits and United’s investors are already pummeling them for making lower profits and with the fare wars continuing... I can’t imagine AS gets through the next few years unscathed without reducing its overreach at this point. Even if the operation itself sustains, investors won’t much longer. This was the hottest stock pick in the industry a short while ago (before the merger became a mess)...my how that seems to have changed
it seems like everyone is raising their guidance, which is probably why the airline stocks have been doing well recently.
United, Delta, and JetBlue All Raise Unit Revenue Forecasts | Business Markets and Stocks News | host.madison.com
Originally Posted by
WebTraveler
Economies are cycles, things that go up, go down. This is not unpredictable. Most analysts have predicted a slowdown about now for some time. It has been manipulated a little bit with this tax cut issue.
Add in the revenue changes coming from the Mileage Plan, and the issues in SFO and it makes sense.
All companies have periods of increase and periods of pulling back.
Alaska did eliminate a direct competitor and keep Jet Blue from getting a west coast operation and hub. It accomplished that. We'll see in time where Alaska further grows (it will) and then all will be fine. Pulling back some and concentrating on its traditional core markets is what is best.
I don't see VX as much a competitor for AS pre-merger. I also think the entire keeping B6 out of west coast isn't great reasoning. AS was doing great building SJC and SAN with money bank rolled from its cash cow of SEA/PDX. Now with merger taking up so much cost and new SFO routes not doing as well, it simply gives AS less ability to counter WN adding capacity at SJC/SAN/SMF. And if B6 had gone with VX, it would have been too spent to do the mint expansion. AS's big threat in West Coast are WN, DL and UA in that particular order. B6 is a puny threat even if it got those 8 gates at SFO and 4 gates at LAX.
Originally Posted by
3Cforme
Good explanation.
The last earnings call referenced a California pricing problem. Not a Western problem, not a Delta-in-Seattle problem. California.
I can't see California getting any better with UA adding more capacity and WN adding more capacity this year. In WN case, most of the new capacity don't come in until Q2. I also see Delta's Seattle pricing pressure overblown since AS gets similar fare numbers while having dramatically lower cost. I think WN entering HI and HA finally getting enough A321NEO will hurt AS far more down the road.