Originally Posted by
pseudoswede
I might have asked this in another thread, but I can't find/remember it.
What kind of profits was UA raking in during the 80's/90's in order to spend money on being the launch customer for the 777? I can't seem to find any SEC filings from those years.
AA/UA were cash machines in the late 80s, and then again in the late 90s - which didn't help with the cost discipline they needed as Southwest, etc were gaining domestic share heading into 2001 and companies figured out paying $2k for a roundtrip Y LA-NY refundable fare wasn't necessary - make employees buy nonrefundable
They placed the 777 order right around the Gulf War recession
You could argue they took the order of the 777s and 747-400 too quickly - basically 1995-1999 over 100 widebodies (unprecedented before or after in the western commercial aviation world I believe in such a short span) - rather than spreading them over 10 years - and got left with boom time capacity and cost heading into a corporate recession in 2001