Originally Posted by
G4er
Maybe I'm confused but are the new Airbuses in 2014 and beyond an investment? Or the Airbus sim, or the new headquarters? To name a few. Planned 70 Airbuses by 2018.
Do you mean the leases on airbuses? Why lease when they can buy? Oh I know, because borrowed money is cheap. And why leased to sunset asset management? Unlike Spirit, we are getting old, trashed airbuses. If we were really investing in the future, why not purchase new?
You think that fancy, ridiculously overpriced corporate building the execs hide in is an investment in the operation? The one with the "hangar", lounges and game rooms? It was probably funded in part from the savings generated from taking away the crew rooms actually needed for the operation.
Airbus sims? They belong to Avenger. The first one wasn't even sponsored by Allegiant. When management found out they couldn't get sim time and we're having to send guys back to Airbus, they 'sponsored' the second sim. We still have still only purchased 1 FTD. You'd never guess there are plans for 70 Airbus by the investment that has been put forth.
And what about investment in the -80? How many engines have to blow and major issues occur before the company decides to use a reputable maintenance vendor that knows MD-80s like AA, like they used to? AAR is a cheap alternative that was chosen to save money. You'd think the valujet/saber tech contract maintenance experience would have taught them a lesson. Why do we hire 'B' Scale mechanics with no experience? Because they're cheaper and we pay new mechanics the samewe pay new flight attendants. So that is all we can get and as soon as they are trained they move on to real "airlines" not travel companies. Same applies to the dispatchers. Crew schedulers usually last a few weeks before they quit. Ground instructors have short life spans too. Information technology is in a constant state of chaos by what we see in 80% of our emails. The learning curve is always steep everywhere in the company for the same reason: lack of investment. Throw a body at it to plug the hole. No training, no supervision, high turnover. But it's cheap and the investors profit. The ones who foot the bill are the passengers and the employees left to fix the mess.
If you honestly believe that there has been enough invested in the operation and support that goes into running an airline, than yes, I would say you're definitely confused.