Originally Posted by
BKbigfish
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).
This right here 👆
It's unfortunately too little, too late. This airline will never be able to shake its reputation (or we'll run out of time before it does) as a late night punchline. Changing the cabin product won't draw premium customers and it'll potentially alienate the ones that actually do like Spirit for what it is/was. A merger or drastically shrinking after cleaning up the books through Chapter 11 (or by some miracle, debt refinancing) will be the only things that will allow this place to survive.