Unless his relationship in the Navy has any affect on how he leads the pilot group, I dont give a sh*t. It's not like a lot of scummy airline pilots haven't done the same thing...

 

Not applicable.

 

what happened there?

 

What’s up with the MEC Merger SLI fund. Are they saying they are trying to bring that back for Jan 2025? Is something up or are they just looking to be proactive for the future, in the event it’s needed.

 

The lack of a pre-existing merger and SLI fund hindered and delayed the ability to retain legal counsel for the spirit merger. Having it pre-funded to at least pay the first few months of the legal costs could help to speed up the process and help prevent the other airline from getting the first pick of SLI lawyers should another merger occur.

 

proactive is my guess... but it feels obvious that that's the long term "jetforward" plan.

 

More pessimism: Are we still dreaming in technicolor that somebody is going to buy us? They could run the same play as Spirit. Just sit back and watch us die. 16 year spirit captains becoming first year FOs is a pretty sweet deal for a business in this business.

 

The difference being Jetblue has more valuable assets that would go to the highest bidder in a Ch7 liquidation. If you are interested in our slot portfolio (JFK mainly) then waiting til Ch7 would risk competition from other carriers bidding as well.

Who needs the JFK assets the most? I would argue AA. And waiting til Ch7 risks others like UA/WN/F9/etc taking chunks of that.

Will it happen? Probably not, but I don't think it is a crazy scenario to imagine AA making an attempt in the next few years, maybe even a joint bid with BA/IAG taking a 25% stake. Ch7 liquidation is a much less percentage likelihood in my mind.

 

Nooo I don't think B6 will go away completely but rather shrink into a niche vacation package airline.

 

We're there already, and have been there since inception really. The west coast experiments have never amounted to much more than a small % of our network. I think what has changed is the narrative from management about their desire long term. We've always been fed the blue juice about 330s to TLV, or even expansion to become a more national competitor, but these have never come close to fruition.

Now, for the first time, mgmt is being realistic and matching the future expectations with our current reality. We have always been an east coast leisure airline, and now that is the end goal for JB. Whether we can have sustainable profitability long term from that remains to be seen. I think it will take an alliance membership at a minimum for that to be possible.

Will someone approach the JB BOD and say "Your expectations of being an east coast leisure airline will provide $X growth for the company but we want to buy JB for $Y because we can make even more of a return with your assets"?