Originally Posted by
Stratoliner
In hindsight a look at JetBlue and Spirit's business situation is not promising. JetBlue said last quarter they do not expect to be profitable this year, which would mean year 6 going into 7 of straight losses. How viable would this combined business have been, really? Beyond the elimination of competition, it's hard to see how these two failing businesses, combined, with all the money spent to reconfigured hundreds of Spirit planes and rebrand its assets, could have done much better. Maybe the demise of the Spirit business would have been slowed down, at best.
AW and US Air were hanging on by a thread post 9/11, and just prior to the 2008 recession the combined entity was the most profitable network carrier in the US. SWA beat everyone by a mile due to their fuel hedges.
In general, the bigger the entity, the more money they can conjure up during bad times. The whole, if you owe the bank $5k it's your problem, if you owe the bank $5b it's the bank's problem sort of thing.
Originally Posted by
mudpie
Is Q1 for airlines summer or does it follow the yearly calendar of Jan-Mar?
1Q was Jan-Mar, 2Q was Apr-Jun. This recent release was for 2Q.