Whalehunter

You sure about this? Pretty sure K4 is the same as Atlas.
One plus to K4 is that they passed 2 contracts before Atlas got one recently.
Lastly I would say that most people view Atlas and K4 as a stepping stone to something better. If you don't plan on retiring anytime soon, I would go to the first place that offers me a job.

Elevation

You never see the end of your professional mobility coming. At least I didn't. For me it was kids. Looking back I knew enough people with young kids that moved around to keep ne thinking "I've got another move in me.".

What I didn't see coming was the fear of putting a whole family, not just me and my wife, through another evolution of saving, scrimping and associated risk. Since we had been poor, we both knew and weren't bothered by lack of funds and material. BUT we also knew the risks, the health compromises (skipping dental stuff, for example) and other issues we had encountered. As adults we could say "We'll get those fillings next year.". With kids you have a series of question marks that don't get answered until they cross certain milestones.

We had saved a very good sized nest egg, which I figured would bridge another move. But a depleted nest egg leaves us unable to cope with tomorrow's chronic disease, fight with a lawyer to get an insurance company to do their part, etc. A chronic disease and a fight with an insurance company depletes funds very, very fast. In short the risks that I thought were nothing as a married adult became huge factors after I had these kids.

A final thing that killed my professional mobility was conflict outside of aviation. It takes wealth to support the people you love. You have to fight or preempt fights to get wealth. You have to fight or preempt fighting to hold on to it. You have to fight or preempt fights to look out for people who did the same for you. The more people you're supporting, the more conflict needs to be addressed. Real estate deals, insurance issues, people double-dipping on commissions, etc. It doesn't stop.

So I write all this to say that you need to be prepared for mobility to stop without warning. We all like to think we can see the people we are becoming or who we want to be. A few experiences, especially things that have nothing to do with flying, can alter your ideas around professional ambition in an hour. This is all before we talk about macroeconomic factors, industry trends, etc.

Know the risks if you jump to a place where you can't get stuck.

SinkRatePullUp

One plus for kalitta is that they fly 16 instead of 17 days and cannot be extended. Also they fly out 0000z on day one and are paid for the travel to work. Atlas has more varied flying and more planes but they also have a lot of debt that could be an issue if we see a recession like some are predicting. Both are good companies that give you an opportunity to do some incredible flying around the world. You wouldn't be making a bad decision picking either.

Swakid8

can you provide a source for that debt?

SinkRatePullUp

It's a publicly traded company. You can look up their financials quite easily.

Swakid8

You are the one making the claim. I disagree with you. So post some numbers to prove your point….

dera

Over 6 billion in assets and around 3.5 billion in liabilities, 2,8 billion in shareholder equity. Atlas is in a fantastic financial position with a very strong balance sheet.
Around 2 billion of debt, easily covered by assets and enough cash to pay off all current debt and have a few hundred million left in the bank. By airline standards, Atlas is practically debt free.

SinkRatePullUp

Really man? It's not a claim when it's verifiable by spending the 30 seconds it requires to look up their financials.

https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/AAWW/financials
Total debt/asset ratio is currently at 39.05. Meaning highly leveraged.

SinkRatePullUp

Also I'm not saying atlas is in a bad financial position as this is the standard business model of a Harvard MBA. Leverage to grow is the name of the game. It's just something to be aware of.

https://simplywall.st/stocks/us/transportation/nasdaq-aaww/atlas-air-worldwide-holdings/news/we-think-atlas-air-worldwide-holdings-nasdaqaaww-can-stay-on/amp

dera

Did you just pull that number out of your backside?

Total assets: $ 6,443,243
Total liabilities: $ 3,633,906

And if we just use debt that you talk about, total debt is $ 2,294,886, this includes both current and long term debt.
Total debt/asset ratio at the end of FY 2021 was 0.59

Numbers in 1000's obviously.

Also, to show the health of the business itself, we can look at the non-GAAP numbers. One important figure there is Free Cash Flow, which excludes capital expenditures for aircraft purchases. That was over 800 million in FY 2021. Their non-aircraft interest/loan service was only around 90 million last year. That is a very low number, and it gives the company a lot of flexibility if they need to downsize.