Democrats against Spirit-Frontier Merger
 

To Those who have been through the M&A process before, is this pretty standard from DC?

https://www.ksat.com/news/politics/2...oost-airfares/

I haven't been through it, but I remember this during every merger. Well, maybe not with RAH and F9.

I wouldn’t worry too much about a letter signed by a “who’s who” list of some of the most worthless, unserious, buffoonish politicians in Washington. I doubt even the DC bureaucratic swamp even takes these morons seriously.

where’s the “like” button?

The letter that this article is talking about doesn't really mean anything. It's a group of senators asking the DOJ/DOT to review the merger to see if it's going to be bad for consumers and raise prices.

Letter aside, you guys have to know that there is a chance this merger does get blocked. The Gov't blocked AA & JetBlues NE alliance. They could block ours too.

It's up to our management teams to convince DC that they aren't going to raise ticket fares

People don't read the article or letter. They see the left is bad or the right is bad, and pile on about it with ad hominem attacks.



I mean, they aren't wrong.

I mean…. When you spearhead a committee on economic policy with Bernie, Lizzie, and Alex, how can you possibly go wrong?

And it’s not the end of the world if it were to be blocked. It’s not as if we are a sinking ship and need a life line.
This may be the first merger that pilots are actively routing for…

The DOJ didn’t block the AA/JB northeast alliance, as it is in full swing right now. They’re suing to block it in court, which will take years to come to a conclusion if it’s not settled first. Big difference.

Yes, you are right. I didn't explain that well. However, the fact that the administration is trying to block the alliance doesn't bode well for our merger

That should be the real story.

I don’t have a dog in the fight, but I think it’ll end up being a big nothing-burger. Just a bunch of politicians validating their existence honestly. I mean just look at some of the names that are against it.

So a NK/F9 merger “could” hurt competition and “could” raise fares? Give me a break. What about the monopoly the Legacy carriers have in the Northeast where most of the money is? Is it not anticompetitive to hoard all those slots? They should investigate that too if a merger between NK and F9 into the 5th largest airline gives them that much heartburn.

You know what else will raise fares and give customers no competition? Skyrocketing fuel prices and a **** economy yet they don’t seem very concerned about that.

They aren't concerned because they did it, if not by design then by utter and complete incompetence.

These are the same people who wanted to pass laws requiring more legroom for passengers on flights, you see how well that worked.
https://nypost.com/2016/02/29/chuck-...lane-leg-room/

Chuck wanted a minimum of 35" leg room back in 2019. And he is too stupid to realize thats how fares get increased, by having less seats. Its literally the mantra of that side of the aisle, "want something for nothing." Just clueless.

So what if this merger falls apart? The assumption is that it is going to go through and I think there’s a strong argument it may. However, I think it’ll be a disaster for both NK & F9 if this falls through.

Disaster? Were you saying "If Frontier and Spirit dont merge, it will be a disaster" a month ago?

Disaster in what way?

Both airlines continue to grow with fleet orders. It’s not like they would need less pilots with a merger. Obviously it’s something that would be really good for both companies, but as someone else pointed out earlier, it’s not like either one is at the brink of impending bankruptcy. Both companies are better suited to ride out higher fuel prices than many competitors.

In the end, the politics are all bluster, I just like pointing out to the Democrats I fly with who is trying to muck with their careers while Joe is busy fumbling energy policy.

I believe there is a $94 million termination “fee” if the merger doesn’t go through.

So..... is everyone wanting this merger? Kind of interesting. I basically do, and think in the long run we will be stronger together but I'm surprised how many people want this to happen.

And also, Biden should only get so much blame for energy prices. Global oil prices are effected by a whole heck of a lot more than just the administration's energy policy. (Just trying to be fair and unbiased)

Except that we were most of the way here before the first Russian soldier stepped off.

imagine what prices would be if we were net exporters and shipping heavy Canadian crude to mix and refine with our lighter stuff via Keystone instead of using a Russian oil while going hat in hand to every petty dictator seeking their oil.

Foreign policy foibles of this and past administrations aside, the world is a better, stabler place, and America is more secure and able to lead when we are energy independent.

I’m for it, mostly because I’ve thought this was inevitable since Indigo appeared on F9’s doorstep in 2013. I accepted it as a condition of a career with Frontier. Timing wise, now is as good of a time as any I can think of, but they’ll still be some merger pain. But I haven’t spoke to anyone on either side of the merger that thinks the other side is going to screw them; which has to be somewhat unique.

And I wrote off this letter to the Secretary of Transportation purely by who signed it. They sign their name on every bad idea that comes across their desk for no other reason than to keep relevant by splashing their names in the headlines.

Uhhh, the stickers at the gas pump tell me otherwise, chief. I refuse to let you bring logic into this fight, dawg.

Paid by who to whom?

So legit question, do we want this merger or not?

Wouldn't our seniority accrue faster if each company stayed separate and grew organically behind us? VS merging to the size each eventually wants to be and effectively stagnating growth for a period?

A merger would (possibly) help to expedite negotiations, but isn't that just short term?

I honestly don't know. I'm mostly just along for the ride. (NK)

To me, it works. Hard to go after the big boys being smaller and even harder when having to compete against other ULCCs

To me it shortcuts us to a place where we want to be, but can’t get organically for years to come. The model works. I wouldn’t have come here if I doubted it. Just have to staff it.

Personally, I do not. If the projections people have put together are at any level near an actual end result, Spirit pilots will be losers. If the business model works as we are continually told, this merger is unnecessary.

“The agreement also provides for a $94.2 million fee payable by Spirit in connection with certain terminations of the agreement.

The companies say they expect to close the transaction in the second half of 2022.”

appears the doj blocking the deal avoids any penalty, however.

I agree with Dr Steve. I’m hearing projections where we will be losers. Hopefully they are wrong, but most likely not.

Ok. That makes more sense.

I was a 737 captain at USAir in 2000 and the UAL meager was supposed to be a slam dunk thanks to Stephen Wolf, who was specifically hired to complete it. The DCA operation was going to sold to the owner of the BET network along with several other route divestures. Having 12 years seniority at the time, things were looking pretty good for a DOH combined list.

Right before 9-11 DOJ said “no” and that was that. Never one to waste a good crisis USAir proceeded to park 110 aircraft permanently and lay-off 1,800 pilots following 9-11. Management stated they had no “Plan B” without the UAL merger. Two bankruptcies later and back to reserve first officer I had enough and “retired” as they were literally months from Chapter 7 until America West bought them with their airline stimulus money at the time.

All great reasons can be found for mergers from the participants and plenty of people can find a threat in it and try to put the brakes on it. It’s not over til it’s over.

Do you have any specific examples of the projections? It seems two faced. On APC many Spirit pilots seems unhappy with the merger. Every time I jumpseat or have a jumpseater Spirit pilots seem extremely happy. It’s clearly mixed feelings but I don’t know where the majority opinion lies.

The thought of applying to a certain legacy based on base location had crept into my mind after ORD closing and the winter excitement but now? No way. I am pretty happy and cautiously optimistic we can both benefit from each other contracts. But I was wrong once so I could be wrong a second time.

I can assure everyone in this thread that it’s not just congressional democrats questioning the efficacy of this merger. I’m 7+ years at NK and I’m not convinced it’s a good thing.

This merger brings nothing but a crap sammich. My life won’t be better because of it only worse. The fact that mgmt has been planning on it for who knows how long probably explains why the last year they didn’t do crap to improve the operational problems besides implementing Bendcon. NK pilots gonna get shafted by Biffledouche

Gotta love the govt snooping and complaining about 2 airlines (efficient and profitable ones, minus covid crap) business decisions and what they want is always rich. The most fiscally irresponsible people trying to control and alter businesses from getting better. Merger or not, fares will be up because everyone is licking their wounds from...wait for it...when the GOVT shutdown travel and cost the airlines billions; not to mention crude over $120/barrel and climbing.

Apes strong together

They have tried to address the meltdowns on multiple fronts. Were you here for the holiday pay? That solved a lot of the problems. Saying they’ve done nothing is a lie. They’ve doubled the CS staff.

They hired XXX number of crew schedulers! Because they lost almost as many!

6 hours and counting trying to get ahold of scheduling today.

Why? Email the chief pilot on duty and wait for the callback/email.