Originally Posted by
pilotpayne
Like most guys say we aren’t that small. Maybe now compared to the merged majors but mainline fleet count of Continental in 2010 was around 350 give or take. JetBlue today is just a bit under 300. Now I don’t know the net worth or the assets vs debt you need someone better at math than me. But we certainly aren’t some worthless company. (Which seems to be the new talking point)
Comparing relative size, JetBlue is small today up against the big 4. Prior to the mergers the biggest legacies all had under 500 aircraft. In that environment a company with 300 aircraft wouldn’t be considered small, but in today’s world it is. JB has a pretty good product and definitely isn’t worthless by any measure, but a debt load of almost $9 billion is a huge hurdle to get over. I look at this like one where an attractive woman is interested in a date. She’s picturing herself as a hottie with things to offer while potential suitors agree that she’s pretty but can’t get past the fact that she has 6 kids and a mountain of credit card debt. I hope that JB can turn things around and return to profitability, but being “saved” by a merger is a strategy that was recently proven not to work.