Originally Posted by
av8or
Literally took the words out of my mouth. It takes a while before people new to paying attention to Alaska, realize that their default position is to SHRINK the footprint, add seats and/or frequency via mainline OR regionals and call it growth. All those Max orders? I PROMISE you that if they thought they could sell them at a profit, retreat back to 2008 and turn a profit while hoping for the next economic downturn….. they would. I’ve said it before…. We are not a lion…. We are a jackal. We do not hunt out, seek prey and compete, we wait until something unfortunate happens to a competitor, and pick at the bones until another apex predator scares us off.
Quite a powerful analogy there, and spot on..
AS has been a one trick pony for a long time, but a very profitable one none-the-less. Being the big fish in the small pond helped.... a lot.
Things are different now, and the hope is that this reality will force them outside of their comfort zone.. permanently.
It might take the bold move of bringing in management and/or a CEO who are far removed geographically, and culturally from the AS bubble, to guide this ship out of the dark ages while still maintaining profitability.