acl65pilot

Alfa;
There is more consolidation to come whether if oil stays high or not. Simple fact is that there are two majors out there that will have a very hard time competing with DAL and UAUA. AMR is a financial mess, and will need to restructure and or merge with someone. LCC is not much better, has low cash margins and frankly has not been doing what other companies have; shoring up its loose ends. DAL and UCAL's route structures both domestically and internationally are going to be very hard to compete with.

I would suspect once again for DAL to play a significant role in industry consolidation. As for AMR and LCC, it is about survival.

DelDah Capt

Well, let's hope the guy making the above financial decision has better luck than the guy who's running the Fuel Hedging Program. Whoever that is made a tough luck bet on WTI as a hedging instrument and while it did have a run-up, it hasn't risen nearly as quick as other hedging instruments....and certainly not enough to cover the large crack spread (Man, I giggle every time I say crack spread).

Should have bet on Heating Oil futures and now that they're dumping the whole WTI portfolio and plowing it into Brent and HtOil, I think it's too late to benefit from much more price instability unless the Mid-East really goes to hell.

FT.com / Commodities - Delta Air Lines shifts fuel hedges out of US benchmark

Edit....Sorry, bad link...the upshot is that Delta had to cash in it's whole WTI portfolio for lack of performance as a hedging instrument compared to Jet fuel's rise and is plowing it into Brent and Heating oil contracts which have tracked jet fuel's rise much more closely....but it may be too late.

Wingnutdal

Anyone having trouble getting on Icrew or Ecrew? Every time I try it logs me out of Deltanet.

DAL 88 Driver

I've been using the Snider Method for 6 years. So far so good. I recommend it.

Wingnutdal

Sorry to quote the whole thing, don't know how to break it out.

At the meeting in Atlanta last week RA said that we hired a guy specifically to do our hedging/fuel planning. He said it was amazing that we spend $7 billion a year on gas and we didn't have someone who was responsible for buying our gas. This might be his first shot across the bow.

Check Essential

The amount of money our management squanders trying to hedge jet fuel is astronomical.

Standby for another memo on APU usage.

DelDah Capt

Well, in their defense, they undoubtedly made 'some' money cashing in the West Texas contracts, but not nearly enough to cover the jump in Jet Fuel costs

....so while another APU memo is indeed possible, I predict that after a long drawn out meeting, they will decide to remove two ice cubes from each bag of ice as a weight savings measure followed by much back-patting, handshaking, and harumphing in Atlanta.

(meanwhile we're reinstalling the ovens back on the MD88/90s that we removed in a weight savings measure during the last fuel crisis.....plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!)

Columbia

You ain't kidding.
Should carriers rethink fuel hedges? - Philly.com
Even though jet-fuel prices jumped 29 percent year over year, the most effective hedging strategy in 2010 was not to hedge at all, US Airways president Scott Kirby said in an interview.

"We don't hedge fuel," Kirby said, "because it's just too expensive." Hedging for a year's worth of jet fuel would have cost the Tempe, Ariz., carrier about $335 million.

Without fuel hedges, US Airways posted a $447 million profit, the second-highest annual profit in the company's history.

FlighTimeBarbie

For all you conspiracy theorists:

CAUGHT ON TAPE: Former SEIU Official Reveals Secret Plan To Destroy JP Morgan, Crash The Stock Market, And Redistribute Wealth In America

March 23, 2011

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Dear Attorney General Holder:

Recent media reports suggest that the former director of the Service Employees International Union’s (“SEIU”) banking and finance campaign has threatened to seriously endanger the welfare of the United States. In a forum at Pace University earlier this month, Stephen Lerner, the former SEIU official, revealed a “secret plan” to “cause a new financial crisis . . . destroy J.P. Morgan . . . and weaken Wall Street’s grip on power” by using “civil disobedience” to create “the conditions necessary for a redistribution of wealth and a change in government.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”[2] The escalation of Mr. Lerner’s threats would clearly constitute domestic terrorism and pose substantial harm to the American people and the economy. I am therefore requesting that you investigate Mr. Lerner’s terrorist plans and notify me how the Department of Justice plans to respond to these threats.
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee of the House of Representatives and may at “any time” investigate “any matter” as set forth in House Rule X. An attachment to this letter provides additional information about responding to the Committee’s request.

If you have any questions regarding this request, please do not hesitate to contact [redacted]. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Jason Chaffetz
cc: The Honorable Darrell Issa, Chairman
cc: The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Minority Member

forgot to bid

Or institute new weight restrictions on crews... Or just FAs.. Nevermind, I feel like a hypocrit.