Originally Posted by GoCats67

I think the real issue will be the aircraft that are leased. Bankruptcy laws have requirements on lessors to not reposses for, I believe, 60 days. The problem is that when the majors were going through bankruptcy in the earlier 2000s, the demand for aircraft was at rock bottom and Boeing and Airbus were having no problems with production of their new narrowbodies. That meant that during those 60 days you could enter into actual negotiations on what the lease rates were going to be going forward. In today's market a narrowbody (that doesn't have the Pratt and Whitney engine issues) would be of interest to many airlines right now and I am sure that the lessors would gladly shift thire assets to AA,DL,UA. That means that Spirit doesn't have much leverage with that entire portion of their cost structure.

I think the same can be said for their pilot pay portion of their costs. If they try to cut that, the loss of pilots will go up even higher than it is already. All at a time when American is about to (theoretically) jump back in to hiring pilots. The slowdown for UA and DL (only 1000+ pilots per year) is due to a lack of aircraft deliveries, If a lessor had a bunch of aircraft available, the airline that got them would be highering even faster. So, again different from the last decades ago bankruptcies, there would be many places for the pilots to go. That would make cutting pilot pay at Spirit a death wish.

So, these bondholders better be ready to take a Marine high and tight haircut!!!