I wonder why an organization with so many other airlines is worried about a new CBA. Desperately saying they can only afford 250mil in new labor costs. The question “where is all the money we make going?”
So I put together a time line off of wiki, It's rough, I am sure some here can dig up better info. Still I found this interesting
Quotes from Wiki
2004 Wizz Air
Wizz Air Hungary was established in September 2003. The founder, József Váradi, was previously CEO of struggling Hungarian state-owned airline Malév Hungarian Airlines,[8][9] until he was removed from office by the Medgyessy government in 2003.[10] The lead investor is Indigo Partners (Indigo Currently owns ~9% of Wizz)
2010 Volaris
July 2010,[8] it was announced that Televisa and Inbursa had sold their stake in Volaris leaving the ownership of Volaris as follows: TACA Airlines with Roberto and Maria Cristina Kriete (50%), Investment fund Discovery Americas (over 25%) and Indigo Partners:
2013 Frontier
In October 2013, Republic Airways Holdings entered into an agreement with private equity firm Indigo Partners to sell Frontier Airlines for approximately $145 million
2017 JetSMART
JetSMART, is a Chilean ultra low-cost carrier controlled by US investment fund Indigo Partners, which also controls low-cost carriers like Frontier Airlines JetSmart requested an air operator's certificate (AOC) on 26 January 2017, and received its authorization in June 2017
2018 Lynx Air
In late 2018, the airline announced it had attracted investors in order to transition from chartered flights to scheduled operations, one of which included American private equity firm Indigo Partners, Ceased operations Feb 2024
2019 Norwegian Air Argentina
On 4 December 2019, JetSmart acquired Norwegian Air Argentina and took over its operations, staff, and license with immediate effect, with plans to merge the airline with JetSmart Argentina
Indigo Partners LLC have a plenty of cash when it comes to buying airlines. I don't think something in the industry standard CBA ballpark will put them in the poor house, It will make it harder for them to buy other Airlines. Unless they sell F9. This seems more likely to me as the airlines owned by Indigo do quite well as smaller airlines. The logistics of running a larger airline seem to a problem. I would also note that Lynx air and JetSMART investments were just before our current CBA. This was before my time at F9. Anybody around here then remember what management was saying about higher compensation then?