Originally Posted by
GPullR
Wasn't me. No idea what they said . But if you believe executive talk during very poor financial results I have some swamp land id like to sell you. What do you think they are going to say?? The truth would probably lead to the stock going down to $2.
JB problem are not going to be solved by growing 80% via a boat anchor nobody wants to ride on. The JB way hasn't worked for years. Great product but completely mismanaged. Your never gonna compete with the big 4 becaseu you A, don't have the massive network swa has, or B don't have the international presence. It would take 40 years to catch up. Unfortunately it's very hard to compete on these fronts while you try and grow. They all have the deep pockets, credit card deals, and lots of business travelers to absorb the wars. There's a reason almost nobody new has survived and prospered since deregulation.
The "tone and demeanor" was referring to primarily the nature of questions asked by the analysts, but the question itself was placed to get you to admit you hadn't listened to the call. So you are not a JB pilot, not a Spirit pilot, and haven't listened to the investor calls where they talk about the nature of issues facing the airline. In other words, you know a lot less about JB and it's challenges than you think you do, yet here you are being an expert on what will and will not work.
JB was largely profitable before COVID, and even to this day has a cash to debt ratio near the top third of the industry. Many of the issues it is currently facing are temporary in nature, meaning less than a couple of years to work through, at which time it would as a stand alone business be profitable, yet possibly not wildly so. As it is, with no mergers, JB has reached nearly 300 mainline aircraft, and will be returning to profitability. That's no failure... Tell me where each of the big 4 would be without their previous numerous mergers, each?
As far as Spirit being a boat anchor, we aren't acquiring them for their business model or customers. It is an asset purchase, both their existing assets (planes, crews, training facilities, gates) and their future assets. Spirit has a very large and desirable (after the Pratt issues are worked through) order book of A320/321 NEOs with near and medium term deliveries, and most importantly those orders were placed with very low contractual acquisition costs, because the orders were placed well before the current environment of inflation and aircraft scarcity. JB gets a great order book of jets at great prices, as well as gates, bases and crews spread out around the country. They will get a very significant hub in FLL where they will have more market share than they have ever had at any of their hubs. And again JB does not need Spirits existing customer base, it's just not who they target generally.
JB will nearly double in size within a few years of the transaction, and will be approaching half the size of its larger peers, especially in the markets that matter. They are also successfully and more aggressively rolling out a transatlantic network, which should eventually lead to other parts of the world. But yeah, 23 years to nearly 300 jets, a lot of unobtainium slots/gates, a cash to debt ratio in the top third of the industry and a so-far successful transatlantic rollout is a failure because they haven't reached sustained profitablity yet post COVID, no matter the reasons.
All we can do is sit back and watch this all play out. You've made your predictions, I've given a glimpse of mine. I guess we just wait and see what happens, but if you think your airline will be buying JB assets from a BK court I think you'll be very disappointed.