Originally Posted by Ellen

I believe right now SKYW is entering a world of hurt. That is just my Fundamental, Operational and Technical assessment of the company.

1) I agree, they are losing RFP's. Management sounded very surprised when an analyst mentioned that Delta was giving flying to Compass, MESA, RAH, et el. Management's comment . . . "Oh! You noticed that!"

2) Their stock chart looks headed technically down to $17.00 or lower. The other carriers (MESA, FRNT, XJT, RJET, LCC, UAUA, CAL, JBLU, all look lower too)

3) Attrition. They are having difficulties staffing pilots, rampers, flight attendants. People are leaving the company. I believe in December SKYW came out and said that it was short around 300-400 ground people in Denver.

4) Lack of Professionalism among the rank and file. If you ever pass through SLC ( I do on ocassion) You will see younger and younger faces. These faces have no idea what Decorum is. (They chew gum, talk during safety briefings when flying another airline, chase each other in the concourse, and in one incidence while flying First class in one of Delta's new Crj900's, (or SKYW I guess) I actually heard a whole conversation that two Flight Attendants were having about religion, marriage, divorce, and the party they went to the night before. The person seated next to me and I were dumbfounded.

5) Operationally they lack the systems to run things efficiently and people to implement what systems they do have. SKYW is undergoing difficulties because of the growth they have experienced. The size of their organization has out paced the operational functionality they have in place. They are holding on too tightly vs. allowing their people to help grow their airline.

6) New leadership. SKYW replaced most of their Experienced senior executive staff a few months ago. I'm not one to believe that the new staff is able to grasp what is needed to run an airline. They don't have the experience. But with that said, they also are not as jaded as previous management. Yet! Just take a look at NWA, blaming cancellations on pilots, weather, controllers, maintenance. Basically blaming it on anything that the public will buy vs. stating that they (NWA Corporate) screwed up in assessing demand. Management is pointing the finger. Expect to see this happen soon at SKYW if UAL and DAL start redistributing flying to other carriers (MESA excepted)

7) Their income comes from their contracts. If they cannot retain those contracts, or if UAL and DAL decide to start operating larger RJ's, SKYW will slowly deminish. It is not out of the realm. With UAL ****ed off, and DAL looking to fly 90 seat CRJ's with mainline pilots, this is a real possibility.

8) A Union Drive- It hurts the company by driving away investors.

9) Industry Turmoil and Passenger resentment toward the lack of service in the airline industry. As well as Congress' potential Airline Bill of Rights.

There is much more that can be added to the list but that is a basic start. It's not just SKYW, you can add other airlines under many of these topics.