Originally Posted by
ColdWhiskey
I hope you are correct, but the fact remains that since Indigo purchased us, net aircraft in the fleet has remained flat. They have taken new aircraft but also returned aircraft (and in some cases returned fairly new 320s), but total aircraft in fleet has not increased. Yes, seat count is up. Utilization is up and total pilots on property has increased.
I guess that is still considered growth, but not the growth that Indigo promised 3 years ago.
Growth costs money and is a belief and a plan for tomorrow. Any money invested in growth, is money that Indigo can not put in their pocket today.
I guess I am playing a mental game of devils advocate with myself!! I hope Aero's assessment is spot on!
There are different ways to define growth, for sure. Yes, our fleet count is flat, although it will grow in 2017. However, our available seat miles for the airline as a whole has grown substantially. They didn't hire 450 pilots for nothing. Utilization is way up, and our passenger seat count is way up. Swapping a 319 for a 321 is a huge amount of growth, just not from our pilot perspective. Frontier has grown just as they said it would. Maybe not the way a lot of pilots thought. Actual fleet growth is coming still