Originally Posted by
AYLflyer
The call was more upbeat than expected but I still have so many questions. One thing that stood out is the fact that we're still sticking to the 2030/2031 timeline for our next A321 delivery, yet MSG at one point said it would be nice if we had more lift capacity during peak, and that domestic mint does great but we clearly reach a plateau to what we can do due to limited number of airplanes. I know we didn't want the XLR due to potential issues and the fact we'd only have 2 of them, but I don't get why normal 321 NEO's with mint weren't looked at. The entire call revolved around premium products and how premium is what's driving the market, how our lack of premium first is what's holding us back yet we're still not taking any 321's for almost 5 years? Again, I'm just a dumb pilot but I'd love to know the reasoning behind that.
They deffered the aircraft deliveries to help get even again. I think its the balance of cost of new airplanes, more crew, etc being greater than the output those aircraft would create. Once you defer aicraft orders its hard to get back to your spot in line. We're kind of cooked until 2030 since I don't know what airbus did with out deffered aicraft slots.
As stated in the earnings call, they made it very clear that their priorities in order are profitability then positive cash flow then de-levering. The path the company seems to be taking to profitability is by reduction of capital expenditures (deffered ac orders), reduction of operating expenditures (VILS, VESP, sh*tty pairings) and expanding premium offerings (domestic first, lounges, increased loyalty through BlueSky).
As a fellow dumb pilot, I hope that by 2030 these decision pay off but my bag of hope keeps getting smaller and smaller each quarter.