Originally Posted by
TOGA LK
From my understanding Horizon was being rebranded as a connection carrier, losing their jets and other feed operators would step in with CRJ's. Just seems like a strange move for an airline with a niche market and a desire to stand alone. Just a hunch, but it seems like Alaska wants the RJ's off their books; whether that desire is internal or external remains to be determined.
Alaska would bring a stronger west coast presence, Hawaiian, Mexico and Canadian flying to LUV. At the same time this would pull the rug out from under AA and DAL on the west coast. After LUV targeted DAL in ATL such a move would only make sense, especially when considering the point to point flying Alaska performs.
I'm not so sure if the purchase of Air Tran wasn't simply to take another LCC off the map and better align LUV against the big 3. The next five years should be some of the most interesting in history.
I'm probably way off.
Close but not quite,
Horizon is being rebranded Alaska and will be all q400
They will lease 5 CRJs to SkyWest to fly the same routes now flown by Horizon pilots...
Horizon actually sells tickets an is broken out separately in the AR. They made 10M last year. That is huge because traditionally feed carriers value is in filling the bigger planes (or so they say).
There is talk of an additional stock buyback this year
FoxBusiness.com - Alaska Air Prefers Stock Buyback To Dividend: CFO
All these trends seem to indicate a de-leveraging of the balance sheet.
Shifting liabilities to operational expenses.
Companies typically do this type of thing in preparation for a buyout.
With our new focus on LA I doubt it will be DAL...
Cheers
George