There was a bit of a mood change.

These Q&As are always intriguing and then entertaining when the regular reporters start asking questions. :D

Ooooh. See, she asked about FAR 117... "we've been able to handle that incredibly successfully" "manage through it quite effectively" "PWA already had a lot of flexibility"

And ATL asking for more service by other international carriers? This city is confused about their place in the world. Dang, landing free in ATL is 1/2 what it is in Miami. Somewhere I once heard CLE was one of the top 3 expensive in the country.

What was our 2013 first quarter pretax profit for a point of reference?

Well, free cash flow was $457M last year and $390M this year with $1.1B last year in operating cash flow and $.951B this year.

The RJ's were Self Financed alright, by My Self, and Your Self! :rolleyes:

And half of today's earnings numbers are being financed by our bankruptcy pay rates, and profit sharing cuts.

In layman's terms, will our profit sharing be bigger or smaller next year based on first quarter results?

Much larger because based on the outlook for the rest of the year total profit for profit sharing purposes should be well above 4 billion. Last year it was 3.4 billion. Everything over 2.5 is at 20 percent.

I think last years profit sharing (received this year) was based on $2.7 billion profit

It was based on 3.4 billion. 2.7 was net profit. Profit sharing is pre tax.

The way I read what the ATL was saying about it, we can get in on it as well. Most or all of the language I read mentioned new city pairs for cargo or pax, though it implied they wanted more cargo. Certain markets (the big ones we may be interested in anyway) were free for 2 years with extra free taxpayer party money from their crumbling coffers because every good government knows if you build it they will come (emphasis added) for marketing expenses.

When I first saw the article title, I assumed it would be more bogus welfare for cancerous LCC's and foreign carriers, which it still may be, but there seems to be a chunk of the funny money we can break off for ourselves.

JB will likely (re)invade (this time in a MUCH more dedicated assault) before the end of 2015 and VX around a year later, and the dual subsidized fake royal Gulf airlines about the same time frame. We're running high on the YoY numbers but soon we'll have to take a break from the magic to counter punch the insolent yield trashers/capacity dumpers. I hope mahogany row is ready for the short term pain required for the long term gain, as well as being on the same page with the airport people to not screw their own futures at the expense of flowery short term press releases.