I think I understand your thought process, Sulk. The problem is that you assume they are planning an IPO sometime in the near future.
I'm in the minority who thinks that the sale / merger / IPO / whatever is a long way off. They are printing cash with the operation running as badly as it is.
BB came into RGS (for probably his last time signing up for that abuse), and told the pilots that we aren't interested in being in the top 50% of the DOT metrics or at the bottom of passenger complaints. If we are scoring that high or treating passengers too well, we're spending too much money for the desired result - maximum profit. They don't care what the passengers call your mom as long as they fork over $65 for a carry-on at the gate.
They want the operation to be
just good enough to keep making money and attracting passengers who insult flight crew. If super low CASM EX-fuel (thanks in part to an employee doing the job of 1.5 employees) allows F9 to beat up on other airlines when fuel costs inevitably climb again - mission accomplished.
If a TA passed by 75/25 they obviously gave labor too much money. Their target is 50.00001% in favor. As long as there's a bunch of black ink at the bottom of the page at the end of the quarter, BB will gladly let passengers be as PO'd as they like. All the better if he can blame SwissPort, software developers, bad w/x in HNL or past management for the problems he's going to have fixed "soon".
This scheme has served ULCC management quite well for a while now. Read this, (written in 2007 after the ULCC model was put into place in 2006 at Spirit) and tell me that management cares how passengers are treated.
Spirit CEO: "We owe him nothing" | Budget Travel's Blog | Travel Deals, Travel Tips, Travel Advice, Vacation Ideas
Obviously, the backlash lasted until the next fare war, and did zero harm to the bottom line.