Originally Posted by
Hedley
Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that Spirit will be a mostly CEO fleet after the recent changes and fleet reductions. In an environment where even the most likely suitor is replacing their older CEOs with NEOs, why would anyone want to take anything more than a few select pieces? Outside of surviving as a much smaller stand alone entity, I can see brand X trying to get gates at a few airports and brand Y trying to obtain some of the NEOs with good engines. This definitely wouldn’t involve employees or SLI issues. Considering the overcapacity in the industry right now, I just don’t see a situation where any company would want to take on the whole operation just to obtain a few desirable pieces.
Gates/slots are very often not "owned" or controlled by airlines. They are controlled by the local airport authority and allocated in a manner that suits *their* interests, which could be any of a variety of things. Other airlines in most cases can't "acquire" gates in BK, they're typically not transferable "assets"... if NK lets them go, then the local authorities will re-allocate them according to their own policies. Which could well be oriented to low cost/startup/competition, so maybe Breeze?
Point being if somebody wanted a significant part of the route structure, they'd need to take on the certificate. That is always quicker and easier than trying to grow it organically.
Now if all they wanted was to refresh their current fleet and were looking for newer planes, then that wouldn't make sense.