That’s not how life works. With trying new things you’re wrong much of the time. It’s the big successes that make up the difference. Failure is the greatest teacher type thing. Bezos, Buffet, Elon and their companies are all examples.

lol. This guy praising billionaires with millionaire parents that helped them become successful as if we have millionaire parents who will actually back our crappy business model.

what are Barry's big successes. Where did failure teach him?

1. What are the successes ?

2. What was learned from the failures ?

3. What is being done different, post-failures ?

Quarterly results were released Aug 5. What will be done, this quarter, different, to move the needle? Or are we just on a rudderless raft floating in the ocean, our course completely dictated by outside forces? Or is someone working on a rudder, or a compass heading, or a gameplan?

The RDU gate agents were fired. What is being done different? Are efforts under way to move to an employee-gate-agent model? Is more training being given to current gate agents? What was learned? Did Barry issue an apology, via the company website, for current and future customers to see? What is being done to prevent a similar situation?

Sprit has always maintained they generate their own customer base as a result of their ultra low fares.

AKA "The Southwest effect"

That went away 20 years ago when SW started paying mainline rates for employees.

Answers:

1). TONS of success. Barry helped take an airline in financial distress to a $1B quarter in revenue. He did this by implementing a newer, up and coming model that was right for the time and customer base.

2). What he has learned (hopefully) is that model doesn't last forever. The principle of the model is fine but the implementation isn't conducive w/ todays (and the future's) customers.

3). Small changes. Very small. There is most certainly a rudder - it's a VERY large one and turning it isn't really Barry's nature. The momentum of cheapness and shoddy customer service is so great, it's difficult to turn the ship even a little.

Overall, the company is losing VERY LITTLE money - about 7% last quarter but for the past 2 years it's more like about 2%. It will probably continue losing around the same rate (maybe a little more) for a while but the cash reserves were pretty stout to begin with. The company is NOT in distress as of 3rd Qtr 2025. However, the future outlook is one that is looking more and more bleak when you factor in Spirit going under, pending labor contracts, aircraft deliveries and a culture that is difficult to change. The real question isn't how long it'll take to become the airline that's poised for sustained profits, it's whether or not it actually will ever get there w/ Barry at the helm.

This is pretty spot on... While we might all ****** on BB. He has done pretty well from where Indigo took on Frontier originally. There are definitely changes being made, albeit slowly, like you said. They also tend to jump into something really quick, then draw back. IE- how they said on the earnings call they were drawing flying on T/W down to 3-4hrs per plane, then said it probably is too low and will settle around 5-6hrs per plane on those days.

Like you said, profits are needed, we can't sit idle floating around -5/5% margins every year and need some good boosts. They seem content and sure they can hit "double digits" every quarter, but stuff "keeps happening". Yeah, seeing our MX issues and incidents, of course higher than expected MX costs eat into our profits. SJU alone cost 15m and no, insurance doesn't cover that. Neither does it insure the tails hit into eachother or the tailstrikes.

Company needs a top down culture shift and BB can spout about a culture of caring and all this jazz as much as he wants, but when it doesn't come from the top and CLEARLY show, guess what hits the bottom workers? Nothing but disdain for all above them.

My examples flew right over your head. Dig deeper.

The failure of Eagle was not compounded by continuing service. He corrected the mistake.

Closing Chicago was a mistake. Fixed.

Having gate agents bounty hunt bags. Fixed

Not flying into LAX. Fixed.

Not having anything resembling an upgrade in seat. Fixed and continuing to be fixed.

Not overpaying for Spirit.

Moving away from nickel and diming with bundles.

A solid path to solid profit this year was within our grasp until Tariffs.


Are there still plenty of mistakes? Tons. Do I think he is the right one to lead the future? No. But you constantly drudge up the failures without any weight given to the successes.

The Raleigh incident is a line item. The service provided from a contract gate agents will be worse than an in house that is paid better but the service failures are expected and budgeted accordingly. Customer service has a cost and Barry cuts costs. I would agree this is a mistake but he has far more information relating to the cost of such failures (gate agents, ground agents, support staff) than you or I ever will. CEOs don’t issue apologies. They take private jets when their network fails.

Thank goodness we have BB then…I think he is way in over his head now. His only business plan is to hope Spirit tanks and that benefits Frontier. And if that doesn’t work he can keep through his favorite pasta at the wall and see if anything sticks.