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!

 

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