Originally Posted by
rononymous
You’re right. Not fair to say marginally bigger than the last 10-15 years but fair to say than the last 5 years. That was exaggerated on my part.
As far as who is making moves I suppose that’s also some frustration showing on my part.
However I would count Alaska and Hawaiian merging and working towards solidifying their position out west as making moves.
Agree Southwest is going through some struggles and Spirit is obviously not in great shape but the others you mentioned are not in our peer set (for pay and contract comparison purposes and such, much respect for the crews).
Just a reality check.
Everyone has an opinion but good moves / attempts at good moves
- In the past 5 years we have grown the pilot group by 37% (3600 - 4900).
- We have added a new fleet type and are retiring an old fleet type.
- We have added ETOPS and transatlantic operations which by all accounts are successful (seasonally).
- NEA alliance was denied in court.
Bad moves...
- We attempted a merger that was denied in court (luckily). This moved was spurred by the prospect of competing with a much larger ULCC (Frontier + Spirit) in FLL and MCO. Alaska made a similar defensive move in acquiring Virgin America to keep JetBlue from growing in the West Coast via a merger with VA.
- Losing focus on product and offering
- allowing the operational reliability to slip to worst in the industry.
- Losing focus on Core Markets (BOS/FLL in particular) during an attempt to expand into LAX and EWR (still an attempt at growth but allowed Delta in particular a foothold in Boston)
Responses to this
- Re focus on our Core markets in particular the North East region. (THIS IS WHERE JETBLUE MAKES ITS MONEY).
- Adding lounges to strengthen our credit card / frequent flier program (this is the where the majors make their money. They also fly airplanes)
- Re focus on operational reliability
- Re focus on product offering to reflect changes in market demand away from no frills flying.
We burnt a lot of cash on the failed merger especially with the break up fee and integration investment. Only in the long run will we know if this price was worth the result (stopping a mega ULCC potentiallly crushing us in Florida).
Out of our control
- NEO engine issues.
The reality is we are where we are now. Is the current strategy the one that will result in the best success for the airline? I'm far from a mgmt cheerleader but they are taking responsible steps to right the ship (in my opinion) if this business is to prosper and grow again, or make it an attractive merger target through strength (not weakness)