Originally Posted by
Shrek
Try not to actually think of it as "Spirit" Airlines but as INDIGO. Is Spirit a large and growing airline in aviation? - Not at the moment. BUT, if you see that, as a part of Indigo, you are a part of huge group of airlines then THAT is where you negotiate from. They are keeping you small for a reason.....lessen expectations.
Indigo would rather have a BILLION one dollar stocks than have one MILLION dollar stock.
Hang tough and don't cut your own legs out from under you before there is even an option of self-help yet.
I am not cutting my legs. I am just telling you why we can't ask for what SW has. To gain a contract like that you need a company that has been showing success for a long time.
However one thing needs to be added. As long the place is small, has no assets, has a small and fragile market share, and is private, their cost of walking away from it, as investors, and starting over in a new entity is also smaller. That has nothing to do with pilot mentality but directly affects leverage and what we can ask for.
EDIT: And we are not bargaining with INDIGO. There is no way for ALPA to prevent INDIGO from establishing another ULCC in FLL tomorrow. Our scope will only go as far as what Spirit can/cannot do. The contract is never going to be between the shareholder as an individual and the pilot group. However once a company is public, and has size like SW or even JB, even if Indigo holds the majority stake, they can't just open a new airline at the expense of letting Spirit sink.