This really wasn't true for the last recession, the biggest in aviation history. The large companies didn't do any worse, and in fact recovered faster and better than the ULCCs/LCCs.

The industry has changed, the airlines have changed. The bottom of the industry is clearly the weakest, both in good times and possibly now in the bad times.

hahaha oh yeah - shoot! You two and your one letter difference names. I think you’re the one that I appreciate 75 percent of the time, or maybe now it’s the two of you 37.5 percent each? Now I have no idea 😂😂😂

Similar, but interesting analysis here:

https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/reports/us-legacy-airlines-enjoy-a-heyday-while-ulccs-face-margin-pressure-660984

Seems obvious now that they said it, but when an industry faces numerous constraints (shortage of ATC, pilots, airplanes), high margin businesses will do much better than high volume businesses.

In normal times, it may not really matter if you sell 10 widgets at $10 profit, or 100 widgets at $1 profit, but if you’re only able to make a fraction of those widgets, the low cost/high volume model doesn’t work.

Many of the issues plaguing Spirit cost very little to fix and have been a main point of contention with passengers; service.

Nobody shows up to a Spirit flight expecting 5 star service, but we treat our passengers like crap far too often:

FA having conversations with themselves during boarding, texting, literally sitting in the front seats.

No gate agents to answer questions because the one we have assigned to the flight it standing over the FAs in the plane, waiting to allow boarding.

Attitude. Just way too much attitude from front line employees; no smiles, just attitude.

Still filthy planes. Mainly because there is no oversight or standards on what constitutes a plane that’s clean and ready for passengers. Many of our lavs look like music festival porta potty, and that’s after they “clean it.”

10000% couldn’t have said it better.

yup! It takes ZERO effort to smile. And slightly more than that to smile and be helpful. What a difference those two small things would make.

Well said. All the easy fixes would come from an attentive management group. Unfortunately, seems like our management left the building at the end of 2022. Their silence has been deafening. If this merger fails to close, it will get worse as many current employees seek another employer

My personal favorite after n JS'ing on a Spirit flight once was gate agent showing up at podium 30mins prior to departure, announcing that there is "something wrong with the airplane, y'all" and then promptly excusing herself behind the gate door for the next 30mins while everyone is at gate wondering if the flight is cancelled, delayed, what did she just say, etc.....

Also reminds me of the Ebola (highly contagious) scare of the Obama years and it was disclosed that an Ebola infected nurse had flown to a wedding aboard a Frontier plane, but it was not disclosed until two days later. Frontier put out a public announcement that proclaimed, "no fear public, EVERY Frontier plane is thoroughly cleaned after each leg so any potential Ebola virus had surely been eradicated"...... anyone in the industry was thinking, sure!

That’s what happens when everyone and everything is contracted out to the low bidder.

In n Out sells cheap burgers but still manages to pay more for their front line employees because they know it matters to the product and the profitability. Spirit steps over dollars to save dimes. There is zero standards and oversight on our front line employees. We cant even get gate agents to wear a uniform all the time.