It is difficult to make a comparison between Spirit and F9 or really any other airline and F9 at this point in time.

Our CBA was negotiated in 2005 and 2006 and ratified in 2007. It has since been drug through Bankruptcy. We came inches from shutting the doors completely two times in the past five years. Once in the summer of 2008 our cash flow was projected to drop below the "administrative dissolution" level allowed by the BK court. The airline had to prepare weekly budgets to the Unsecured Creditors Committee and the weekly budget showed a dangerously low level of cash. Thankfully the price of oil plummeted from an all time high in July to a sustainable level in the fall. Without that fall in oil prices F9 was going to shut down for good in late August or early September. I rode a jumpseat home in late August thinking it would certainly the last time I would be using my F9 ID. I took a bunch of pics during the flight and drove home from the airport at peace just waiting to see F9 on the news.

The second time was in June 2011. RAH had lost $55 million in just a few months, by design. They shifted a bunch of orphaned RJ's over to the F9 balance sheet and made us a cost center for the holding company. The RAH BoD had a choice of recouping their investment by just sinking F9 and ridding themselves of a bunch of bad RJ's or extracting concessions and recouping their investment via profits. They chose the latter and F9 lived to fly another day. It is really a miracle that we are still in business.

So our CBA was ratified seven years ago and experienced several rounds of concessions. Our hourly rates represent this reality. Virtually every other airline has negotiated new CBA's since our exit from BK so we are not comparing apples to apples.

We will have our day in 2016 to negotiate a new CBA sometime after 2017. Once we start flying the NEO's in 2016 (if the LEAP X motor is ready in time) F9 will have stupid profit margins. We already have the highest consistent profit margins in the history of this airline. The NEO will just add to that in a big way. Indigo is going to make a killing for a few years while we negotiate a new CBA. It will be a good point in time for us to be bargaining for higher wages.

Just my two cents.