All the aircraft jetblue has taken recently were paid for in cash. Some have been financed. And some of the older ones are leased.

 

AS is starting to smell like legacy US

 

I heard that the deal includes a new Miata for all Alaska CA's

 

Except Alaska is profitable…..

 

That's not true.
There are a number of ways to measure size of airlines. Here is the wiki page for North America by passenger count, fleet size, (feel free to ignore these two) destinations, and frequency. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._North_America

If you choose to measure by pax count, the big 4 (AA, DAL, UAL, LUV) are pretty much one group. Below that, the next US airline is Alaska, with a comparable pax count to Spirit and Jetblue. And F9 isn't that far behind on pax count.
The pilots at those airlines are concerned about the same things as Alaska. Survival/growth is an industry wide problem right now.

Now that B6 has entered the merger fray, I expect there to be some more mergers. And if B6/NK goes through (I'm expecting that to happen), Alaska is probably going to be in play. It's possible that one of the big 4 could acquire Alaska; LUV and UAL would be the least likely to encounter much DOJ resistance.
And don't forget F9; if they aren't able to merge with NK, they're likely to merge with someone else.

 

There are two ways to view Alaska's current management: either they're deep in secret merger negotiations or they are totally incompetent.
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Evidence of merger or stupidity, take your pick:

1) Since Ben has taken over, he's been the invisible CEO. No vision, no goals, no leadership during crisis. Where is this guy? He has no shortage of charisma and ego. I thought Ben would be out front from day one, you could see him drooling for this job. Instead, he's off in a bunker somewhere.

2) The current pilot staffing shortage was avoidable. They saw the numbers, they set the schedules. Why would they get themselves into such a predicament while in contract negotiations? Last weekend, they gave away all negotiating leverage and are continuing to trash the Alaska brand as the staffing crisis shows no signs of abating. This was an unforced error. Why? To what gain? The only explanations are they're trying to keep their numbers tight for a merger or they don't know what they're doing.

3) No real dealing with the pilot contract... It's obvious to everyone that Alaska needs modern pilot contract to entice folks to apply here. The pilots aren't even asking for the moon, just industry standard work rules and payrates set to keep up with our peers. With PBS on the table there are plenty of moving parts and lots of room to horse trade. I don't understand why Alaska doesn't get creative and hammer out a deal that makes this place an excellent place to work. Instead, middle managers beat on the pilots with decades old negotiating strategies and send out infuriating emails on a weekly basis. All of it just further unifies the pilots while making a mockery of Alaska's so called culture of caring. It's absolutely toxic.

4) The pandemic recovery was supposed to be Alaska's time to shine. Alaska has the strongest balance sheet, the best aircraft order book in history, the lowest cost per seat mile, etc. We were supposed to ride this thing to the moon, or at least get something approaching double digit growth rates. Instead, here we sit, dead in the water, Max's replacing busses. There's no marketing, it's dead quiet. We're behaving more like a regional bank brand than a dynamic travel company. It's one thing to be safe and conservative, but Alaska has crossed the line and become gutless and floundering.

It's my hope that Jetblue made the Spirit offer because they know SWA is about to buy Alaska. A Spirit-Jetblue merger makes zero sense other than as a desperate move to stay relevant and large enough to be a player. Or maybe, JetBlue just has balls and chooses to write their own future because they don't have the option of retreating to Seattle.

 

How did the SLI went for you guys and Virgin? Since both were ALPA. Just trying to understand the ALPA to ALPA policy with an example.

 

Great post, just want to mention that this point is somewhat debatable. There is nothing "industry standard" about reserves not having calendar days off, or allowing the company to work them into vacation days, or not being allowed to pick up open time above guarantee. Likewise, there's nothing "industry standard" about having to step trade back to monthly min credit because we aren't pay protected for line bid conflicts. Or not getting a reassignment override. Tbh, most of ALPA's proposed scheduling points fall well short of "industry standard." But carry on, I know that's beside your point

 

AS and B6 are talking… I think B6 just went all in and forced AS to make a decision. Either way B6 wins. One way AS is in a world of hurt. Current odds have to be 2 to 3, I become a JetBlue pilot. The only two other variables I see are UAL and SWA. Crazy world

 

Alaska and jetBlue is the only marriage that makes real business sense, though it wouldn’t surprise me if Ben and Company can’t get their act together in time to make it happen.