Originally Posted by
captnate702
I am a G4 lurker but couldn't resist. Ya'll are living in an echo chamber if you think "investing" in the product to compete with anybody other than NK and G4 and maybe the startups is delusional.
There is an airline that precisely fits the story you are telling and that is B6 and they haven't turned a profit since 2019. They offer a great product. fantastic imo for a LCC. But they have underperformed for over a decade. Only reason they are still around is they possess a huge portion of the most valuable airline real estate in the world (JFK slots).
You do know that NK is trying to do what you are saying F9 should do and it is failing miserably. It would take years to rebuild the F9 brand into a non-ULCC airline and unfortunately in this industry F9 doesn't have years to re-brand and let the flying public learn through word of mouth, social media, etc. the "new" frontier. We are in the same boat here at allegiant. No wifi, lots of delays, but the fewest cancellations in the industry. we are puttering along, we tried to differentiate ourselves with a billion dollar swamp hotel that we just sold for $200m. again, nobody is gonna associate allegiant with the ritz or four seasons and that's what our former president tried to do with a luxury resort in a florida swamp.
bottom line: forget about dreams that F9 will ever be something other than a ULCC. You don't want it to be anything different because to do a true re-brand and make it like the pre-bankruptcy F9 would require... a bankruptcy.
you’re ignoring the success of Southwest Airlines. With their bags fly free model they had and an open cabin configuration with snacks people loved it. There are low cost models that work. Sounds like to me the failure point has been implementation. I do believe we can’t just have a product like legacy carriers and sell tickets like them. You need a product that is different to bring people in. But this ultra low cost model has failed the industry. We are a parasite in the industry by your own admission. We don’t deserve the same pay because our product isn’t good. So we should morally all quit and work at a regional until we are called to the golden four flight deck. How about we demand fair pay and let the company sort it out. We don’t manage an airline but your point of model change being an issue is also delusional. Markets evolve or the business fails. Go look what’s happening over at intel. As a business we need to evolve to be in line with customer expectations or we are without customers. Well if we’re gonna be without customers and end up like intel we may as well cash in on the pay we can achieve through collective bargaining before the inevitable end of the ULCC model. Since according to you businesses can’t change before they go bankrupt. Guess what maybe this admin allows for carriers to be acquired and then we win even bigger because frontier failed and Alaska/Hawaiian or some other real carrier picked up the company merged them into their ranks.
you’re a defeatist and you’re showing us the state of your own frustration and projecting it onto us. Best of luck over there.