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Spirit Now Sure As It Emerges From Bankruptcy


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Spirit Now Sure As It Emerges From Bankruptcy

Old 08-13-2025 | 11:13 AM
  #1131  
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Originally Posted by Name User
Spirit owns 50 jets unencumbered IIRC, that means without liens on them. The other ~150 were sold and then leased back IIRC to generate income which means their terms are going to be pretty bad. During the go-go years pre-covid, Spirit was actually converting leases to owned jets and said it saved them $1m a year per jet to do it that way.

Guessing the 50 they own were so worn out they weren't able to extract any value out of them doing sale-leaseback deals.
AA's old 319s and 320s are far more worn out. I think the big hangup is the amount of refurbishment it would take to convert the cabin.
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Old 08-13-2025 | 11:24 AM
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Originally Posted by fw90
look at the numbers.

United made less than $6 per ticketed passenger per segment from ticket sales.

United made more than $27 per ticketed passenger segment from Other Revenue (IE Credit card income)

it’s all out there for you to double check. Look at the DOT filings.
Yes its a higher revenue source, but its a very small percentage of revenue, less than 4% of total revenue. You can just look at the financial statements. They are all out there to see.

Also you are literally proving United is profitable without it because on the other 96% of flights we made $6 per ticketed segment. Multiply that by the number of ticketed segments and you get $4B+ in profit.

If United didn't have to carry those passengers, the costs associated would disappear as well. Its not just an ongoing referral fee for getting someone to sign up for a credit card.

It also proves its not just a cash handout and there are operating costs associated with it. So its $1.9B in "other revenue", but probably carries $1.3B in costs, so only $600M of profit against $4B in net profit.

When your total credit card revenue is under $2B and you have over $4B in profit then some nimrod with a point to prove writes some childish analysis about how the airlines all lose money that's obviously false. Its like saying the only reason airlines are profitable are because of the 1st 3 rows of First Class, because if you took out that revenue those airlines would be lowing money. Well those are all part of the entire business. Without that revenue, the airlines would just adjust their model to maintain profit.
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Old 08-13-2025 | 11:25 AM
  #1133  
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Originally Posted by fw90
look at the numbers.

United made less than $6 per ticketed passenger per segment from ticket sales.

United made more than $27 per ticketed passenger segment from Other Revenue (IE Credit card income)

it’s all out there for you to double check. Look at the DOT filings.
Other revenue also means cargo if I’m not mistaken. Not to mention other things like checked bags and lounge access. In fact, we have a whole cargo division for belly freight. They do good work over there and is a big part of the airline’s success
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Old 08-13-2025 | 11:33 AM
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Originally Posted by JulesWinfield
AA's old 319s and 320s are far more worn out. I think the big hangup is the amount of refurbishment it would take to convert the cabin.
Our seat supplier doesn't have the capacity. With the new planes we are getting as well as the current refurbishments it was just too many. That's what they have said publicly. It would take over a year and that's too long. Plus we are getting a bunch of brand new planes already and probably can't hire fast enough to take the existing deliveries and then a bunch of other planes as well.
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Old 08-13-2025 | 11:35 AM
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Originally Posted by Name User
Spirit owns 50 jets unencumbered IIRC, that means without liens on them. The other ~150 were sold and then leased back IIRC to generate income which means their terms are going to be pretty bad. During the go-go years pre-covid, Spirit was actually converting leases to owned jets and said it saved them $1m a year per jet to do it that way.

Guessing the 50 they own were so worn out they weren't able to extract any value out of them doing sale-leaseback deals.

It would be cheaper to just go out and buy CEOs on the open market then purchase all of Spirit's assets and debts.

Here are current purchase/lease rates for CEOs:
A319 – $8.4 - $25.4M, $65-235,000
A320 – $10.9 - $32.9M, $110-290,000
A321 – $14.4 - $42.6M, $140-330,000

To put it in perspective, AA was paying $1,500/month to lease their MD80s!
Per the latest 10Q, Spirit has no un-encumbered aircraft.
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Old 08-13-2025 | 11:36 AM
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Originally Posted by SoFloFlyer
Other revenue also means cargo if I’m not mistaken. Not to mention other things like checked bags and lounge access. In fact, we have a whole cargo division for belly freight. They do good work over there and is a big part of the airline’s success
Its not. Cargo revenue is broken out separately. Also "other revenue" includes United club memberships, other services United provides and revenue from items bought on board. The whole debate is pointless. Its rife with misinformation and misperceptions because of some clickbaity articles.
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Old 08-13-2025 | 11:37 AM
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Originally Posted by SoFloFlyer
Other revenue also means cargo if I’m not mistaken. Not to mention other things like checked bags and lounge access. In fact, we have a whole cargo division for belly freight. They do good work over there and is a big part of the airline’s success
Yea, I was going to say "other revenue" encompasses a lot of thing. Cargo, bag fees, premium seating, on board sales, change/cancel fees, lounge access, etc. When I booked a UA ticket recently, at every step and turn of the process, UA was trying to upsell me on something.

My dad spent his career in customized air logistics and gave a lot of business to Continental/United over the years.
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Old 08-13-2025 | 11:38 AM
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Originally Posted by EAFF95
Per the latest 10Q, Spirit has no un-encumbered aircraft.
The planes that they said they were selling in December that fell through are still on the books, so they haven't sold. Also they were more than 50% encumbered, and so the $500M sale price wasn't net cash but was only going to net about $200M in the transaction.
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Old 08-13-2025 | 12:52 PM
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Originally Posted by Chimpy
a year and a half from now is a long time and they still aren't brand new NEOs and still have to be retrofitted. They would be parked not generating any income I assume .Listen, I have no idea what any mgmt is planning, just thinking out loud.

Good news! They’re already parked ready for the interior shop lol
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Old 08-13-2025 | 12:56 PM
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Originally Posted by EAFF95
Per the latest 10Q, Spirit has no un-encumbered aircraft.

Exactly. Everything is leased or mortgaged. ALL the NEOs are leased. Some CEOs have debt on them and maybe a little equity so they will be sold no matter what to pay off their debt and maybe pit a little scratch in the bank
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