Yes. That must be why, at the end of 2018 when Frontier was beginning to have recruiting problems, Frankie allowed BB to agree to a pilot TA that had the largest single contract gains in all of ALPA history. Six months after that he placed the largest single order for new aircraft in Airbus’ history with a large chunk of those airframes slated for Frontier. Two years after that he placed another massive aircraft order that nearly rivaled the first. Again, with a large portion of those airframes planned for Frontier. Then a few months later he went on to buy another airline.

Franke is frugal and he won’t spend a cent more than he needs to, but he always ponies up when he has to. He just waits until he has no other choice. When gates get too expensive at LAX or ORD he can continue to fill planes and the airline will keep moving if he just starts operating out of ONT and MDW. The airline can’t keep moving and making money without pilots. That’s a simple fact.

Also don’t forget that Frontier is a public company now. As is Spirit and as will be the new merged company. Franke is no longer a one man band like his earlier years of Frontier. He can’t just snap his fingers and thy will be done. If he’s going to make a decision that is going to severely damper revenue and profit possibilities he’s going to have to convince an entire board of directors of that and will likely leave a lot of shareholders ****ed.

Take a breath people. The sun will continue to rise in the East just as it always has.