Originally Posted by Spaceman Spliff

that's just his base salary...don't even ask about his perks and stock options. Probably worth 10 times as much. He's doing just fine.

Originally Posted by chicken

In your opinion, given the current market conditions, how long do you think Frontier has?

Originally Posted by iahflyr

In the airline industry, cash = time. Frontier actually has a decent amount of cash if I remember correctly. I believe they have about $200 million in cash. Even though they are losing $40 million a quarter, I don't see their demise as imminent. I think there is a much better chance of a few others carriers going out of business first (Mesa, VA, etc...)

Oil prices are going to continue to force carriers out of business. Something needs to be done about these fuel prices.

Originally Posted by Andy

F9 is extremely short on cash. F9 hasn't been able to line up any DIP (debtor in possession) financing; that's not a good sign.

F9 had $170M, according to their end of Dec filing. They haven't filed a 10Q for Jan-Mar 08 yet, so it's difficult to determine their current cash position. It's unlikely that F9 will be able to emerge from bankruptcy unless they find additional cash and soon.

Due to negative cash flow trends, First Data told F9 that they would be increasing the holdback percentage on tickets sold to 50%. First Data also wanted to increase collateral from $54.5M to $130M. First Data was obviously getting rather concerned over F9's survival, since their air traffic liability at the end of Dec was $174.7M.
In one of their bankruptcy filings, F9's SVP of Finance (Edward Christie) said that F9 had $18.1M left on letters of credit.
I don't know how long F9 will be able to hold off First Data's attempt to increase holdback, but if F9's credit card processor agreement expires anytime soon, they'll likely be toast instantly.

F9's sold 2 A318s and 2 A319s, allowing them to free up ~$35M in equity (I don't have the exact numbers at my fingertips right now). Having watched this with other airlines, I'll go out on a limb and say those aircraft probably had the most equity of any aircraft in F9's fleet. Any additional aircraft sales will not net as much money.

With F9 filing for bankruptcy, they'll have to pay everything on a cash basis; there'll be no more 60 days same as cash. That's a huge squeeze on cash flow.

It seems like Southwest has been adding DEN flights ever since F9 declared bankruptcy. With Southwest rapidly expanding in DEN, they are putting the screws to F9. I have no doubt that LUV's goal is to put F9 out of business.

Here are a couple of LUV's latest press releases:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....359&highlight=
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....426&highlight=

Originally Posted by Flyboyrw

Did Frontier make a cut today? Lynx did.

Originally Posted by MTOP

Southwest does not have a better product, but they do have the product that people want,

Originally Posted by Spaceman Spliff

Isn't the product people want, in a capitalistic market, the definition of a "better product?"

To think otherwise is to fail in business. It's not about what you consider to be the best product, it's what your customer considers the best product...for whatever fickle or irrational reason they choose.

Does anyone actually think Wal-mart provides the best shopping experience? They do make tons of money, though.

Originally Posted by Fishfreighter

Lets not forget Branson FAILED with Virgin Blue in Australia. He didn't get rich throwing money down ratholes.