Alaska nearing deal to acquire Virgin America
 

JetBlue Airways would lose out, with Alaska Air expected to pay up to around $2 billion if its bid succeeds

Alaska Air Nearing Deal to Acquire Virgin America - WSJ

Alaska Air Group Inc. has emerged as the likely winner of an auction for Virgin America Inc., people familiar with the matter said.

Alaska Air is nearing a deal to buy Virgin America, after beating a rival bid for the airline by JetBlue Airways Corp., the people said.

There is no guarantee Alaska ultimately will clinch the deal, but if it does, an announcement could come Monday, they added.

Virgin America is 54%-owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group Ltd. and New York-based Cyrus Capital Partners LP.

Wow! Are you guys at AS surprised by this? I didn't think it was such a valuable target

We have a bunch of cash burning a hole in our pockets apparently.

Yesterday B6 was the winner today it's AK! Funny how the story Keeps changing. I hope it is AK. I don't think it would be a great deal for us at B6.

Would AK keep the Airbus fleet though?

This is moderately terrifying...

Yup. And they likely wont keep them. :) (sell them to guess who) Growth with zero drama involved with a messy SLI. Great deal actually.

Kinda what I was thinking. Sucks for VX but for two companies trying to take out a small player it is pretty genius. We'll find out soon enough.

VERY true... .it could be a bad deal for VX, and for that I am not happy at all. Unfortunately, the reality is that running and competing in business isn't always puppy dogs and ice cream ... and nothing is ever, and I mean ever guaranteed. Always be ready for Plan B, C.... etc.

Half the posts in this thread about Alaska/Virgin are JetBlue pilots. Some of you guys migrate fast.

Cue the Alaska pilots calling for the VX pilots to be stapled, or integrated into their seniority list only from 2007 on in 3, 2, 1......

Are jets really the limiting factor in jetblues growth? Or is it more demand?

Does Alaska have enough 737s to cover VX routes? Why wouldn't they just turn in the airbuses when their leases are up instead of giving them to their new competition.

Seems like an Alaska/Virgin merger would be a lot more complicated then an JetBlue/virgin merger (aside from the *****ing pilots).

It's not demand, it's how far to you want to lever up to grow. Plus the strains on the infrastructure (dispatch, scheduling, admin, etc...) if you grow too fast. Also slots and gates keep us constrained. We have to build new gates and terminals in some of our hubs which is capital intensive.

Right now FLL is taking up most of our resources. Once that is built out I'll be really curious where we target. This attempted buy out of VX might offer some clues.

Those 320's will end up somewhere on the market if they return them to Airbus. I'm not so sure it'll make them a great deal, it's not like they will saturate the global 320 market.

On APC the Alaska guys seem to have class.

Then my countdown apparently hasn't finished yet! I kid. I kid.

As a new guy at Alaska, my biggest concern is if we buy them, did I just have 630 people jump in front of my career progression at Alaska? That might seem a bit selfish, but besides living in the Seattle area, a big reason I wanted Alaska was the potential for growth behind me. I think the increased market presence is good for the company, but am I going to be a 15-year FO waiting my turn?

It would be an equipment merger like all the others, thus you would blend probably at an even ratio, unless Alaska can argue the 737 is a higher status aircraft than the Airbus.

Are you referring to a 1:1 date-of-hire merger?

Only if 2/3 of ALPA Merger Policy is thrown out and only Status/Category is used.

That's a legitimate concern. And as a dude still in the pool, I'm just hoping hiring doesn't slam to a stop with this thing...

Yup, same here. A little worried actually.

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McCatskill Bond doesn't apply and VA Pilots don't have a union contract. It's way WAY to early to assume anything regarding seniority integration. Just ask the Airtran Pilots.

They may not have a CBA but they are ALPA, so ALPA merger policy would apply. Where it gets wonky, is without a CBA they don't have any LPPs, but Alaska does. Those would count.

Sorry, help me out here. LPP's?

Exactly....

LPP Labor Protective Provisions

I have friends at SWA who told me they will have to be there 15 years now to make Captain. The merger added 5 years to their career progression.

"By the way, why do they call him Eskimo Joe?"

"Who knows how these ***** nicknames came about? His name was Joe, maybe one day he said he was cold."


LMAO @ Dicaprio

Isn't that how all mergers have been going the past few decades? All the arbitrator has to do is throw in a few sentences in the arbitration about date of hire and career expectations but then the whole award will be by status/category.

Does VA really have 2 billion in value? Is there outstanding debt on their airframes? So they get 1.5% of the US market and some more gates at airports they already fly to? Their market cap in February before all the merger talks began was only 1.2 billion. I don't get it.

Mergers very rarely rely on an individual pilot's understanding of getting "it."

It's all about money, wall street, and who gets rich.

No way will Virgin get DOH. Likely that they just run it as 2 different airlines since it's a 737/320ish mix. It would be a total hose job for Alaska pilots to have to accept Virgin pilots into the list with on a date of hire basis.

Assuming Alaskan wins the bid and the puzzle palace decides to do the right thing (and that's a BIG if) and integrate Virgin into the dysfunctional eskimo family, the SLI will indeed be veeeeeery interesting to say the least. I can't even begin to speculate the approach and outcome. If this ever happens, I sincerely hope that we can work together as pilots to achieve the best possible outcome for all involved. I, for one, am fed up with all of the in fighting thereby becoming management's source of entertainment, aka beaaaaaahtch.

Yawn.......

Only reason is to stop JetBlue from getting them.

What merger?
 

Alaska would be under no obligation to merge the two airlines. Check Alaska's scope, they may choose to rebrand virgin to Alaska Global and trade the 320s for 350s and start a worldwide op seperate from any Alaska airlines operations. This is the new whipsaw folks.

VA only owns 6 ships... unfortunately, the VA A320 leases will most likely be terminated. The VA value is in the slots not ships.

VX pilots need to worry more about elimination than integration.

That and the elimination of a West Coast competitor.

If Alaska only wants the slots what happens to Virgin pilots?

Only a guess, but as AS returns the jets, the pilots will be furloughed.
The upside to that is if they are furloughed, technically they'd have recall rights to AS as the company adds the Boeings they have on order.

That would be really bad news for the poolies.

When is the last time AS furloughed?

If this deal goes through I feel bad for the Alaska bros. You better believe BT will use Virgin to whipsaw you guys into taking concessions or at least halting any contract progress you might make. And that's not even counting the nightmare a merger proposes. I wouldn't be surprised if AAG keeps VA on a separate certificate just for whipsawing purposes. You Alaska boys don't want to take your medicine? All expansion goes to VA side.

If you're a junior Alaska pilot I might start thinking about updating that UAL/DAL/AA app quickly.