Too bad they don’t make LHR a 777 base…

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Right, and uncle sugar covered major portions of the airlines salaries for the two years of covid.

Since the end of covid, the airline environment has been on a profit fever. For y'all equating some magical mgmt ability, it's been a great market for the airlines for the last year that has only been hampered by the lack of available planes and labor.

My whole response was to the opinion of some on this thread on how great a mgmt strategy had been on the recovery.

In hindsight, the fact that the US Govt gave the airlines money (that was free as long as they didn't furlough) which inevitably encouraged them to VEOP and early retire as many things/people as possible, ended up costing the industry $$$$$ because if there had been furloughs, at least the recovery would've snapped back at even a faster pace.

Of course everything about COVID could have been improved if govt/airlines had a 20/20 hindsight mirror.

I disagree with a lot of this.

End of covid was not 24 months ago. Masks ended 16 months ago. Summer of 2022 is when things really started heating up and bookings took off, that was just 12 months ago. As an example, on June 1st 2021, we were still down 30% systemwide as far as pax go. July 1st 2023 was the first time 2019 numbers were exceeded.

The majority of the money given to the airlines was in the form of a loan. AA did pay this back in its entirety IIRC.

Reducing the pilots on property nationwide (DL had similar issues where they put a bunch on the A220 FO bid status to save $) actually increased profits, because it restrained the amount of total flying systemwide which increased ticket prices. This had nothing to do with passenger recovery though (the two were not correlated).

I don't think anyone has claimed AA management are savants.

Completely different situation at Delta then. Company has only been constrained by lack of planes and personnel for the last 18 months. If they had those our pax numbers would’ve exceeded 2019 #s much sooner.

Delta and others didn’t have to pay back the feds anything because they never furloughed. That was the string that Congress put on the money. VEOP quickly reduced headcount right before surging demand but they had parked the 777s and 88/90 fleet so constrained by physical plane availability as well as personnel.

This debate all started cause I said all the mgmt look smart when the conditions are ripe for a profit. Right now all the companies should be making a great margin. Mgmt gets touch when conditions sour, that will be the true test of mgmt strategies.

Personally hope to see AA prosper as it helps everyone if all the companies are decently managed.

um, all the legacies are paying down debt in this environment.

shading competitors for putting in "TV screens" seems like a reach. to hell what the customers want, amirite?

Delta absolutely took the government money:

U.S. Treasury starts distributing $15 billion in payroll aid to airlines | Reuters.



You are mixing things up. Payback of loans wasn't a contingency of not furloughing, it was an contingency of getting the first couple rounds of government free money. Remember, there were a total of 3 (?) rounds of government funding.

AA furloughed after all the government money stopped, and APA refused to reduce obligation hours/pay like UAL and DAL did.

I think the free wifi Delta has offered is awesome and is a great feature that everyone should offer. TV screens don't move the needle for me. I'd personally rather watch something on my device. I think cost/benefit analysis favors the device holders over tv screens, particularly in 20+ year old narrow bodies.

The debt part is simply not true. You can't tell me UA is reducing its debt while taking 700 new airplanes...

I'm sure Delta has run its own numbers. They seem not to have consulted you, though I can't imagine why they didn't. Fortunately, since AA isn't wasting money on TV screens, I'm sure they'll be beating Delta in all the meaningful metrics any day now.
Shoulda checked the "CFO" box on your application.

You realize you're on the AA forum, right? He asked a question about AA's strategy. I included qualifiers stating the current disadvantage AA is at, but mentioned how I think they are doing the right things to turn things around. Not sure what your problem is, other than fitting the Widget stereotype...