Originally Posted by CousinEddie

As the competition continues to outperform us by a significant margin, their ability to attract larger shares of high yield customers increases. Small percentages 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?