Don’t joke... the Tristar was a bad bit@$! And no I didn’t fly it... far too young

I bet your fun to fly with.

Possible Plane Order
 

Seriously? Could you possibly be anymore cliche... it’s a web forum... I bet your the one who is a peach... I’m not 25... probably 80 percent of our seniority list is too young to have flown it...


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How far south you planning on going Colonel?

I flew the L-1011, the -100 and the -500. The greatest experience in my aviation career, loved every second of it.

I remember flying on Eastern and TWA Tristars when growing up. Always awesome experiences.

What’s the latest on the interest in the A220 or E2 internally?

Show me a ULLC with 2 fleet types.

JetBlue...even though they think they're a "major."

Edit: Ok, maybe they're just a LCC

Even so, they're the only LCC with 2 fleet types. Allegiant isn't an airline, they're a travel company (per mgmt).

WOW had 320 and 330's. They parked and sold all 330's. Source USA today.

Correction: we're a potato farming and travel agency conglomerate.

Is the A319 effective for thin markets? Previous Delta CEO didn’t think so. Obviously you would need a large fleet number to spread the costs, but if an A220 has a 25% CASM improvement vs the A319, and it provides route flexibility, perhaps it should be considered. Large fleet deals generally command lower per-unit costs (negotite lower purchase prices). Plus, unless Spirit wants to compete with UAL, AA, Allegiant, Easyjet and many Chinese carriers for used A319/20s, ordering new airframes will be difficult considering the NEO order backlog. More expensive leasing becomes another option.

Point is, both the E2 and A220 have shallow order backlogs for now (both JB and Moxy see the value) and claim to offer 25% improved efficiency. No doubt Spirit management has to weigh “single fleet efficiency” vs the availability of more fuel efficient types that require a switching cost/complexity. There are trade-offs to consider. If a certain revenue growth rate must be achieved going forward for the stock valuation, fleet decisions will need to be made. Currently the E2 has few orders (significant availability) and the A220 is still reasonably available - although it is gaining more and more orders (which is good for training and maintenance costs/availability).

I agree, there is always going to be a break even point in there somewhere when it makes sense to have multiple fleet types. Rumor is that Boeing is pushing pretty hard for us to switch over as they don’t have a foothold in the US ULCC market and want to get in before it’s too late and the major players have matured too much. Either way I’d welcome any new growth at this point.



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Direct lift control FTW.

I wonder how much sweeter they’re willing to go than 3 guppies for the price of 2.

Btw, that’s also a nice compliment for the ULCC model.

Thanks for taking my call. First time, long time...

On top of no new fleet news, anyone have any idea as to why wifi is now indefinitely deactivated?

Uncle Bob said nothing on his way out... Cousin Ted said nothing on his way in and we're getting cold turkey'd off of Bendo's podcasts.

Silence is becoming deafening.

Yes, DLC, one of the greatest most amazing inventions for an airliner if not the greatest.

The L-1011 flew like a dream, nothing comes close. If you flew one, you know.

I believe Allegiant now only has 319s and 320s.

I love how everyone seems to know that "Boeing is offering 3 for 2" but don't have any more information than that.


Frankly, I don't believe it.

Speaking of Frank...(e)

You guys are funny. The airplane order has already been announced...by Frontier. Please tell me you guys see the writing on the wall. Let’s see Frontier pilots just passed their contract and they are already getting DOS+1 the same day we are (March 1st) why? Why would that be? Their contract is the same as ours.

Spirit and Frontier are already starting to use the same gates and ground crew at some stations..and some Frontier planes are already getting the plastic Spirit cups. Way too fishy to me. Me thinks this announcement is any day now.

Yeah, a merger seems imminent but to say our contracts are the same shows you either don't know their contract or don't know ours.. section 3 is similar and rigs are similar. Everything else is wildly different.

I don’t see why not. Heavy discounts off of MSRP on large orders is definitely a thing for aircraft manufacturers. Especially ones wanting to get their foot in the door with our model and move a few more guppies.

We had jetBlue napkins and cups on flights out of BOS three years ago.

Im not saying the idea is unbelievable. I'm well aware how MSRP discounts work. I'm just saying it seems like everyone has heard "Boeing offered us 3 for price of 2" and every single one of those people seems to have insider info but no one actually knows what plane or merger is happening. I'm not calling bs on the fact that MSRP discounts are common, I'm calling BS on everyone who claims they have insider info

Meanwhile, the A220 becomes more compelling compared to the standard A319/20:

https://leehamnews.com/2019/01/17/pips-planned-for-a220-to-improve-operating-costs/

Having insider info? Agree, that number is but a few people.

Boeing offering 73’s at 2/3’a MSRP, and the word getting out with their sales reps haunting the hallways in Miramar? I can believe that.

Possible Plane Order
 

I agree with the merger, it’s sad (and a bit scary) that their contract is worse than ours and passed by a higher percent.


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What makes you say it's worse than ours. Just wondering, I don't know much about it.

see little to no chance at a merger in the next 3-5 years unless the economy tanks. there is zero benefit for the company or our pilot group to take on dead weight

Since our POI is furloughed and the government is in partial shutdown you probably won't see any aircraft get accepted, the wifi is probably tied to the shutdown too. As far as welcome letters go, probably just a lack of leadership. Running the numbers isn't the same as rallying the troops.

Or perhaps they are just done doing testing on the WiFi until the other aircraft get the WiFi installed and are ready to go live with it.

I think it's along the lines of QOL, work rules, and pay protection.

What other airline runs a wifi system with the seat density that Spirit does?

Remember the initial restriction on leaving the back row of seats empty.

Purely rumor, the system weights to much, maybe removed.

The system didn't get any heavier than when they decided on the install. It requires an STC to operate though.

NASA lost its $125-million Mars Climate Orbiter because spacecraft engineers failed to convert from English to metric measurements when exchanging vital data before the craft was launched, space agency officials said Thursday.

A navigation team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory used the metric system of millimeters and meters in its calculations, while Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, which designed and built the spacecraft, provided crucial acceleration data in the English system of inches, feet and pounds.

As a result, JPL engineers mistook acceleration readings measured in English units of pound-seconds for a metric measure of force called newton-seconds.

In a sense, the spacecraft was lost in translation.

"That is so dumb," said John Logsdon, director of George Washington University's space policy institute. "There seems to have emerged over the past couple of years a systematic problem in the space community of insufficient attention to detail."

Some of you people crack me up..

High level top secret NK/Frontier merger meeting at an undisclosed location:

“Well I think we have most of the broad strokes of the deal worked out, I don’t see any reason why a merger won’t go through. That being said, what say we start sharing supplies and ground personnel and save a bit of cash for our bonuses?”

But sir, aren’t you worried that a few astute, switched on pilots will notice these things and break the news?

“Do you have any idea how much money we are wasting on cups!!!???”

But sir, it will be all over APC forums within hours, certainly we can’t keep a lid on it and control the spin!

“I know... we will shut of the WiFi on the one plane that has it, then they can’t post anything.... problem solved!”

Hearty round of applause from across the board room table ensues

Another interesting article. Delta thinks the A220 is the “coolest” airplane in its fleet:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tedreed/2019/01/17/the-airbus-a220-is-the-aircraft-worlds-new-star-ten-years-after-the-first-boeing-787-flight/#3493febc3a1a

C’mon Spirit, join the club!!! ;)

Westjet just received its first 787.

B6 merger coming. Announced before summer NK will be the acquiring carrier. Book it.

Well to be technicall. Westjet is a LCC not a ULCC. They did however just start a spin off airline called Swoop which will be a ULCC and has begun taking deliveries of 737’s.