Early on in BDL and PVD when we first started.

 

Agreed, I dont see Neeleman returning to JB in some glorious fashion, maybe they merge and he has a symbolic seat on the BOD but nothing more. It really comes down to the financial backers of Breeze and how their ROI is looking and how much longer they want to finance the "startup phase" of MX. Could JB approach them and make an offer to cash them out? Jetblue's entire identity now is East Coast Leisure Airline. They need to defend that segment furiously or risk continued irrelevance.

I think a large part of the Breeze network wouldn't work with JB, but this is more about consolidating in the region. JB could benefit from some sort of mid-atlantic base that Breeze operates, probably RDU as a front runner. No doubt the operational efficiency is a struggle, but that could get better with more network consolidation instead of smaller bases spread around (RIC/ORF/RDU/CHS). I hadn't heard they will be flying Lears, that's a pretty big sign things are terrible operationally...

I'd argue stuff like VRB wouldn't happen without Breeze going first. A lot of the growth in secondary NE/FL markets would be because they are sniping traffic that used to be more loyal to JB.

 

Respectfully disagree.

Working at Chipotle is a job. Working at Home Depot is a job. Being a pilot at a major airline is a career, and one that most of us have spent decades trying to achieve. It isn't just a job that I can stumble into. No other job is going to pay me high 6 figures and offer the QOL I have. It's the reason many of us are running for the exit, and it's because we don't want to spend years at a company that may go under and risk losing that career we worked so hard for. While none of us can predict the future, at this moment in time we can probably agree that a position at the big 3 is much more stable and secure than a position at B6 or Spirit.

 

It would be very interesting to see what happens. We will have up to 120 A220s and obviously that can complement JB and we are a mostly East Coast airline as well. Maybe a domestic route consolidation between Breeze and JB as well as widebody flying out of the hubs to compete with legacies. Who knows. We do have a different business model right now though and brand identity. Also yep we are hiring for Lear pilots, it’s on the website.

 

Thing is Spirits owners are also the primary debt holders. They have the ability to structure a deal and the debt however they want. Debt can be converted to equity.

 

Can we merge with NK and give the creditors some of our debt as well? 😂

 

oh I’m sure but he said we went after them and it didn’t work. Maybe I completely missed that.

 

Oh I agree with that, but most people, even in similar or higher-paying careers, have worse job security than even a B6 pilot. To me it’s just not worth the mental bandwidth to worry about, at least not yet. Kinda interesting to me nobody ever talks about going to Alaska; they’re about to get a new JCBA and hire, and they’re much better off than we are financially.

 

Oh the BOD isn’t happy? Why not? Where were they when RH did his part running this place into the ground? Where were they when the company ran up its balance sheet? Where were they when the company stock fell off a cliff? Where were they when we shuttered the entire west coast operation and shrank to being an east coast only airline? Saying the BOD isn’t happy is laughable.

 

I am absolutely shocked by our largest shareholders not filing lawsuits or being upset about our companies lack of performance when compared to the rest of the market.