Originally Posted by
Cujo665
You can’t compare the legacy costs from being a large FFD and trying to create your own branded flying from scratch. Having good investors to get you $125M sounds great but isn’t all that much when it comes with all the opening day debt they all had.
Via has no debt. Their planes are owned outright, not leased. They’re building a brand 1 plane at a time, one route at a time and not trying to fly 90 planes on day one. They’re growing organically, have plans in play for larger planes as the loads increase... $125M isn’t even 1/5th of the cash on hand with zero debt. Doubt all you want. They’re going to do well. E-jets and B737 being discussed as loads grow. Their point to point vacation, resorts and high volume direct routing are working well for them.
Hate all you want, it’s working
By the way, talking about CASM is pointless without first having the revenue to support it.
Hence, a small plane going full all the time doesn’t go broke. It was Robert Crandal that made that comment/observation, and I’d say he knows a lot more about the airline business than either of us.
Continue hating, it’s working for them at Via
Right you have no debt because you bought a bunch of worn out EMB 145s and 120s cheap. Makes for less cash up front, but kills you in the long run in maintenance costs. Look I could care less about Via air. Hope it works out for you. But to say nobody ever tried to run 50 seaters in a LCC or Ultra LCC environment is not true. It has been tried and it failed every time. The only way 50 seaters work is to pair them with larger aircraft to spread the costs out over the entire fleet so you can make money. Eventually the costs on 50 seaters will eat you alive without larger aircraft for them to feed.
The Airline industry is littered with the carcasses of management that thought they could reinvent the wheel and succeed with a business model that failed others. Maybe these geniuses at Via air have come up with something that may work. But the odds are they won't. Geez everytime you post I can remember reading what the Expressjet guys were saying, and see Tom Moore in the crew room telling us bigger planes are coming, this is just the beginning, etc, etc. Hell I expect you to start talking about A330s just like Fly I did.
Like I said. Best of luck to you. You're gonna need it.