majorpilot

Not the Russians tho! They’ve invested way too much in that asset to lose it now.

majorpilot

Yeah, I know right? Can you believe they’re trying to sell us this “the earth is round” garbage? I mean, come ON!

Belief > science. Especially when it’s CNN science.

sobo

Whatever your belief about this whole virus thing is, whether it's real/fake, deserved/hype, etc... is irrelevant. The facts are that the bookings are way down and the company is taking drastic measures to reduce costs as it is.

70% reduction in capacity... BB basically was asking us to write our representatives to get help for the company... that is not a great sign in my opinion on top of an already ugly situation.

I wonder the likelihood of receiving a slice of this financial aid package is, and what that means for our jobs.

MtnPeakCruiser

Frontier is worried about getting a fair share, if any, of bailout grants/loans. ALPA is worried about a repeat of 9/11 bailout fund abuse by execs. Both are legitimate threats to our pilot group.

The legacies believe they are “too big to fail.” They think that the collapse of their airline would cripple the transportation infrastructure of the major cities they call home (I would argue that healthy airlines would fill that void). They are counting on government grants (free money) in excess of the liquid assets they held following the most profitable period of airline history. Their strategy is to soak up the profits in stock buybacks (the big 4 used 96% of all cash for buybacks this past decade) and let the American taxpayers be their insurance policy.

In regards to bail fund abuse: No government grants or loans issued to Frontier or any other airline should be used to pay executives (including equity or re-pricing existing stock options) unless all employees benefit equally. Most airlines have already gotten away with it once in the years to follow 9/11. The unconditional bailout funds allowed the shareholders to recoup their investments, execs to create golden parachutes and then they still drove their airlines into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Then they could wipe away the CBAs of their labor during reorganization and build their recovery on the reduced paychecks of their employees.

We’ll have to wait and see if our government provides equal terms on grants/loans for all airlines or if they decide to pick the winners and losers of this recession. It appears there already seems to be some squawking amongst politicians that any bailouts should restrict any stock buybacks and exec bonuses. It’s about to get very political. Remember that Ted Cruz of Texas is the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee’s aviation panel. Don’t be surprised if Texas based AA gets a disproportionate share.

Aero1900

Any bailout is going to benefit the large intl carriers more than us.

SFA320

I definitely agree. But even a very small percentage of the bailout money would be huge for us. Heck, I’m sure a couple hundred million would. Hopefully they could make that happen.
How well connected is Indigo and Franke? Also, is Frontier a member of A4A or not? I’ve been hearing we are, but I can’t seem to find that information anywhere.

Bluedriver

That article, as it relates to JetBlue, is quite inaccurate. Dramatically so.

As mentioned, it doesn't include the newly acquired $1 billion in liquid cash. But possibly most striking, is that it values JB's 1/3 of its fleet which is unencumbered, as well as JB's extraordinarily valuable slot portfolio, at only $200 million.

That's off by magnitudes.

And, the analysis was done before JetBlue announced 40% capacity cuts from April into the summer, among other changes.

JB went into this with the second best balance sheet of publicly traded US airlines. That is still true, and as you know, government assistance will be coming.

Even without government assistance, JB has at least 200+ days of operating cash using normal assumptions.

Honestly wishing the best for us all, including every Frontier pilot.

MtnPeakCruiser

Imagine that, your company decided to sit on their cash instead of using it on stock buybacks. Brilliant.

Trowserchilli

They actually participated in stock buybacks also.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/je...eal-2019-11-22

jamesholzhauer

No. Jetblue used 75% of its FCF for buybacks. https://www.marketwatch.com/amp/stor...3-79BAEFEE335A