There is no way to cut costs enough to compete with the legacies on their “basic economy” because the legacies can just run their domestic networks at a loss subsidized by CC revenue. The 3 headed oligopoly of the US airline industry is now almost completely impenetrable due to CC revenue. Hence why NK is now being forced to compete on the product and not just price. NK can’t make money selling $30 seats anymore. They have to increase revenue and the only way to do that is to increase the quality of the product. Depending on whether or not they can renegotiate the debt this pivot could be successful, or this could all just be maneuvering to attempt another M&A (my guess is that it’s a little of both).