Originally Posted by
Lincoln Osiris
My plan is wait it out. We have a difference of opinion on this. Your thinking is, financial trouble = ch7 no more airline. If that was the case AA, DL, UA, and SW would have been gone a long time ago. My thinking is either things will improve or another merger will happen. But to think Spirit will become the largest airline in US history to liquidate is a big stretch. That would be a huge hit to the market place and the government would likely step in prior to that step as the airline sector falls under infrastructure.
The entirety of the DOJ's argument in court was about seats in the market place. Well if spirit goes ch7 there is no guarantee any of those seats stay in the US as foreign subsidized carriers desperate for A/C will pay way above market value to get them. So it is likely none of those aircraft stay in the US at that point. If you were a senior pilot at US Airways, Northwest, or Continental do you think jumping ship back in the 2000's and starting all over again would have been a smart move? Me thinks not.
I look at things in a logical historical way. Others who have not been in this industry long prefer the dramatic unfounded speculative drama route.
I think a lot of pilots are taking the approach to just wait for an acquisition and slide onto a more stable airline's pilot seniority list. Its a legitimate strategy.
Eastern went BK and was a much larger airline than Spirit. They were the largest airline domestically in the US for total enplanements less than 6 years before they shut down and 3rd largest behind United and Delta. Obviously not that large when they closed their doors because they started shrinking, but a lot of pilots there said the same thing about going out of business. Same at PanAm.