Or if too many creatures sit on its tail. Then its front paws come off the ground.

True,

But an airline needs jet fuel to operate. An airline does not need hotels and car rental companies. So while there is some validity in your comparison there are some distinct differences also.

Scoop

No, fortunately you cannot. Hopefully that never changes either.

True, but I really do think this is different. Fuel is the number 1 cost item. $.01 results in a $40 million change in costs one way or the other. (if I have that correct) So if the $.10 advantage in fuel prices is legitimate, that is huge.

I just finished listening to Jon Ruggles' podcast interview from August. If you listen to that, listen to what he says right at the 7 minute mark. It is very interesting. Most of his interview is quite esoteric in nature, but you can definitely tell he knows what he is talking about, especially as it relates to the airline. Towards the end he even talks about how the fleet works. I am glad he is our guy.

HSLD, one of the founders, closed it. Basically the thread had run it's course and there's info in there that would not be beneficial to pilots likely now fighting for their jobs.

Didn't NWA used to own the Narita layover hotel?

NW and KLM owned (own) it.

Um why?

And don't give me that crap about seniority jumping outta base. Every senior pilot would have the choice to bid out of base to do the same thing. It's just a gamble. If you choose to gamble with your seniority you should be able to.

That was a great 411, and I'm glad he's our guy as well. The takeaway for me is that the refinery and hedging are tools to control fuel cost in the same way insurance reduces financial exposure for unforseen events.

Prior to this Delta's fuel strategy has been using so called collars, a type of hedge that limits upward and downward exposure while limiting expense.

The refinery takes this one step further. It doesn't matter what comes out of the refinery and I doubt much if any "jet fuel" will ever make it from that refinery into a Delta jet. It's more about having a tool to fine tune hedges minimizing risk and maximizing yield.

No other player in the oil trading space, absent hedges, benefits from a market downturn the way Delta does. Now can we please hire some Wall Street guy to tell Delta to become just as vertically integrated and bring more flying in-house...

Cheers
George

I think they're different things. Hotels and rental cars are attempts to expand your business opportunities with the danger of getting too far outside your core business. The refinery is an attempt to control your supply chain. It's definitely thinking outside the box. We either end up with a refinery or the speculators get nervous and look for other opportunities............or we get our a$$ kicked