Originally Posted by
dracir1
When NK goes under, it will be the worse thing that could happen to us given:
Spirit is the ONE airline most people think is worse than us. Whether it's true or not, there won't be any question who is.
Also, JB will probably merge (out of survival) w/ a profitable airline leaving us as the only unquestionable ULCC. With the softening demand (due mostly to Gen Y, Z and Millennials "requiring" at least basic services that we don't offer - read this a wifi), the only people who will take F9 will be poorer Gen Xers (over 50 crowd) who really don't care about wifi or service. And, there's just not enough of them to go around - plus, if you burn them once, they'll leave and won't come back.
The only way forward for ANY American airline in terms of survival is to provide at least basic customer service (which we don't) AND be cheap. We're a LONG WAY from customer service in that it would take a completely different model.
We need to become a different airline.
This take is off… If NK disappears it would open up more gates and expansion opportunities for frontier allowing them to offer more profitable routes.
JB is not merging with anyone in the near future. Even this republican DOJ would not go for a JB merger with anyone bigger…
But lets say you are right… lets say AK wants to expand its horizon east with more european destinations and scoops up JB in addition to their HAL takeover.
That leaves us, WN, G4, SY, XP, and MX
Next to WN, frontier would be the biggest LCC in the country and WN isn’t even LCC anymore... I believe you are underestimating the need people have for low cost travel, Necessity travel as I call it. If you take over every route with cheaper fares some people will choose accordingly. The reality is there’s always someone willing to travel on F9… with spirit out of the picture, it just adds more. If people truly think NK is worse than F9, and NK still has customers, it says something.
As much as we joke, Greyhounds are still running for a reason.