Happyflyer

I wouldn't be surprised, but it does suck for companies and employees, because during good times they can spend millions on a deal only to be blocked by the DOJ.

One could argue that deals aren't pursued more often because of the threat of the DOJ, which would keep the industry more venerable.

So, consumer needs "protecting" during goodtimes, and taxpayer completely not responsible during bad times.

To the publics credit, billions have been totally squandered since 2014.

Noworkallplay

Couldn't agree more. Where do you draw the line and why do airlines deserve a bailout over many other affected industries. It’s funny to see all the conservatives, I’m one myself, preach about free markets but when they are on the chopping block they beg for socialism type economics.

bababouey

The worst part is when congress calls Doug Oscar Ed Gary to the hill and lectures them on fiscal recklessness, give me a ****ing break, pot meet kettle


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Dobbs18

true...but almost every freaking economist in the world warned of the stupidity of so much stock buybacks, especially in an industry as fickle as the airline industry. If they start lecturing on seat size, baggage fees and ticket cost then that would be stupid. Thats just plain ol capitalism, supply and demand....airline travel is essential to inter intrastate and world commerce and has been well researched and study. I just flew 35 people to SJO and no lie 10 locals asked me how many we had on board before we got on the van. Its devasting to a country like C.R if there was no air travel.

iHateAMR

You’re calling me out for standing up for waiters, desk clerks and other non pilots?

Get off your high horse, you don’t even have the common decency to notice other people will be suffering and believe yourself to be better than them because you’re a pilot. Karma’s a B.

mainlineAF

I don’t know wtf you’re talking about. I have empathy for everyone. But i do know you’re a moron.

Cicada

My opinion only: I see every single airline entering BK. And this time it's going to be restructuring simply to provide necessary commerce to prop up the rest of the economy. All the stock wiped clean, and not going to be a consideration to be re issued for a long time while the airlines simply take government aid money, create cash flow to operate, and pay employees and vendors. Move the rest of the world towards recovery simply as a utility. It's that dire. Nobody is going to view an airline as an investment for a period of at least five years. It's going to be simply prop them up, let them collect cash to operate, pay employees and vendors. That's it. The government will be first to siphon back any reserve cash later, not stockholders. Maybe yrs later stock comes back, with serious constraints.
Maybe ten years down, or five. Definitely no stock concerns for now.
I wouldn t look for a stock recovery any more. I did for a while, no more. Sold it all.

Saabs

I don’t think he gets that AMR hasn’t been around for 7 years...

full of luv

Dobbs,
Im not mgmt and it's almost impossible to structure a company to survive no to little revenue fro 1-6months. Your proposal to just stockpile Billions and Billions of profits in cash accounts is not something that capitalist companies do. They have a BOD who manage the company to make as much profit as possible. If they have extra they can reinvest in stuff, grow, pay people more, increase a dividend or buy back shares in the company. The mgmt and BOD have to decide the best use of the money and each has positives and negatives. Because certain companies refuse to repatriate their profits from other countries (like Apple etc) and have huge cash balances outside the US, that is a function of the US tax code and not good corporate governance.

full of luv

This too will pass in some way, there is still quite a bit of capital in the US. We are not a communist or socialist country so the govt will not "own" the airlines. If they go through BK system, it will reset everyones wages and terms of current contracts based on what the current demand is. It will not be good for us the employees or the vendors.
There may be lender of last resort loans by the govt, but eventually private money will flow back into the companies via stock/bonds. Depending upon the damage, some companies may not be viable going forward. It's really an unknown at this point is when this situation changes.