Originally Posted by
El Guapo
Everyone relax. UAL lost over $300 mil 1st quarter of last year and still made over a billion for the year. Nothing will change in terms of leadership or management as long as the stock doesn't take a dump. The BOD could care 2 you know what's how UAL is doing relative to DAL, their primary concern is taking care of the shareholders, and the stock keeps going up, so Jeffy ain't going nowhere anytime soon.
As the competition continues to outperform us by a significant margin, their ability to attract larger shares of high yield customers increases. Small percentage losses in high yield traffic are quite significant. That billion dollar a year profit you think is "good enough" can turn in to a billion dollar a year loss very quickly. Also, in DAL's case their financial performance has allowed them to reduce their debt by $8 billion since 2009. Even in a world of low interest rates, that is a significant amount of debt that they are no longer servicing. It frees up cash flow for other things, like investing directly in the operation and winning over even more corporate clients.
Next time the economy blows out, who will be the first one on their knees? Still think our situation is acceptable?