Jetblue Buyout ?
 

Has anyone heard rumors of a Jetblue buyout? Rumors with fact behind them instead of office talk?

Personally, I hope it happens. Frontier, perhaps?

It would fit the modus operandi of David Neeleman. This is the longest he's run one of his airline projects. Its time for him to sell.

Hopefully, you'll all join the acquiring carrier's Union without too much squawking.

V, truth be known...I would prefer a union. I am not neceassarily an ALPA fan, however, everything that one would want with a union is already built into an ALPA membership. Medical support, legal, loss of license and so on...

I also think that the current management at B6 is no longer capable of continuing the operation. Everything that we all knew was behind the scenes pretty much reared it's ugly head during the V-Day massacre. I.E. the shoestring budgets that have kept us from being properly equipped with dispatch and scheduling software that is designed to work with a 130 A/C airline, the lack of "qualified" middle management personel in key decision making positions, the lack of a phone system that can actually handle so many customer calls and the list goes on and on...

If a buyout occurs I just hope to have a job on the back side of it. Neeleman is killing this company and truly needs to leave. At this point I pretty much feel that B6's only chance for survival is a buyout buy a real airline.

Well, the Needle has pretty much sucked dime out of B6 he can. That's why I'd look to see him bail sometime this year.

Some of the reasons you gave are why I think it will be F9. Complimentary aircraft and route structure. If you put the two route maps together, it makes a lot of sense. From the pilot's perspective, F9 has an in-house Union, so that would be more palatable to your anti-ALPA cadre.

Hopefully, they won't screw you like CAL did to PE when they took them over...gave the top 250 or so Captains DoH and stapled everyone else. You know for sure if its DAL or Spirit, the "Swingline" will be warmed up.

I agree, F9 seems to be the best match as far as pairing up with another LCC. The routes would compliment each others and fit nicely. I am certainly not oppossed to an established in house union but I would certainly hate the burden of beginning one.

I also agree that if DL is the buyer...the best, and I mean dreamshot, would be a staple and a long term fence. We all know the worst.

What exactly does it mean to be "stapled"? Sounds bad.

Pretty sure that it means that the seniority list of the purchased company gets "stapled" to the BOTTOM of the seniority list of the buying company...meaning that the most senior captain at the acquired airline is placed below the lowest captain at the buyer company.

Technically stapled would mean that the senior CA of the losing company is below the junior FO of the acquiring company.

As many rumors that get floated here and elsewhere, I have yet to see any merger or attempted merger where the employees had any clue before it was announced at 8am over the AP newswire.

No point in worrying about them until they happen.

Hell, our CEO found out about the USAir plan on the radio as he was driving in for the day!

..........

;) So that's a bad thing? A Blue Captain eventually gets to fly a 777?

That isn`t what "staple method" means. The purchased company`s seniority list gets stapled to the bottom of the buying air line`s list. The senior captain on the purchased air line`s list is below the junior copilot on the buying air line`s list. Sounds fair.

Stapled may not be as bad of a thing as "fenced." Ask any former Republic pilot from the 80s now flying with NWA. My uncle wasn't able to upgrade past the 9 (Republic's original equipment) for like 10 years or so. And he was unable to bid 74 captain even though he is senior to left-seaters...

Red list, green list (or blue list) fences. Not sure what it was called.

Well, just a guess. I would bet that there could possibly be a staple and a fence on equipment as well as domicile. I truly do not feel that any B6 pilot would be piloting a 777 for DL...a fence would stop that. Honestly, if something were to heppen I would just hope to have a job in the end.

I also agree, no need in worrying about it until the anouncement. Rumor is just that until it is sitting on the ramp. I am just wondering what others might have heard on this. Besides...rumors are fun.

We're hearing the Jet Blue rumor alot at Delta. I'll believe it when I see it. In our iteration of the rumor, we are primarily interested in the terminal and the E-jets.

The problems with this are: (1) Are the E-jets' problems worked out? (2) Do we want a new aircraft type? (We've been working toward a 777/767/757/737 fleet) (3) Will Delta's operation fit into that terminal? We're talking alot of wide bodies put into a terminal designed for narrow bodies.

FWIW, a staple job is highly unlikely. Why would we want an angry subgroup of pilots in our midst? A fence would be very likely, though.

Merger
 

No matter how any merger works. Someone is gonna be mad. Some mergers seems to be more amicable than others (AA vs TWA not being one of them) but someone is still going to be at the bottom and not happy about it.

I don't remember all the details about either merger but it seems that Delta and Western went fairly smoothly while Delta and Pan Am left the Pan Am guys holding the short end of the stick.

I think it will be a Virgin buy of Jet B..... Any takers?

I had heard USA3000.

Maybe the APA (American Airlines pilots) can be advisors to any merger between the JB pilots and their new suitor.

JB has $600mill of unrestricted cash, so it could do the buying if F9 was something they need, but not the other way around. f9 does not have the cash ( almos 3bill market cap) and JB does not have enough asset to be the target of a leveraged buyout , so F9 buying JB totally on Unsecured debt would be a recipe for instant financial disaster.

I don't see jb buying f9 either, at the very least the similarities between PX and JB would be too mch for any investor to bear ( remeber the dissastrous buyout of original frontier by PX?) .

I would love to see JB and F9 join together and have a DEN base, but I don't see it.

how about UAL buying JB? similar 320's ,more East coast presence for UAL and 190's ( and eliminating a pesky LCC )

Not until EVERY DAL pilot gets one. So..no.

Now that sounds feasible.

Neeleman Hooked on Airline Biz
 

Very good post. Very professional response, too. When AA bought TWA, all AA'ers could think of was stapling all TWA pilots and swallowing up TWA assets and quicker upgrades. I congratulate you on your demeaner, as compared to many AA pilots.

Now, as far as JetBlue's terminals, keep this in mind: Both terminals at JFK were originally TWA terminals that serviced L1011s/767s/747s. They can handle DL widebodies, no problem. The current JetBlue terminal, terminal 6, was TWA's domestic terminal, and mostly had 727s/MD80s and occasional 767s/L1011s parking there. The historic Terminal 5 next door, which Jetblue is refurbishing for future use, had many 747s/767s/L1011s parked there. That would be a good bet to use for any future expansion or merger with other carriers.

Lastly, I read a book called "Blue Streak" by Barbara S. Peterson, which is an extremely detailed account of David Neeleman and JetBlue. It talks about Neeleman's start at MorrisAir, WestJet and Southwest, and is very interesting. I highly recommend it. You'll see after reading this that Neeleman is the least likely to cash out and sell-out his baby; he is in it for the long run. I doubt JetBlue gets sold or merges.

http://edcorner.stanford.edu/authorM...o.html?mid=281

-LAFF

Well, ideally...I have no interest in a buyout. I would much rather remain an independent and stay with a niche. I just don't know if the industry will allow it.