Wall Street seems to think something is going on...stock has jumped about $5 since yesterday...

Actually, I'd say Frontier makes way more sense than NK (and B6 is just not gonna happen). Smaller and thus easier to pass DOJ muster than NK. Aside from acquiring their jets/pilots, it allows us to tighten our grip on DEN. Plus we could poach personnel/facilities from their training center for ours down the road. As a private company, it might be easier to purchase as it would not require shareholder approval (I believe a Frontier IPO was recently shelved, at least temporarily). Plus, the current owners may be out of ideas for increasing profits and ready to cash out. The fact that the Kirbster was pleased at F9's recent refocus on hub and spoke growth suggests he's been keeping a keen eye on the company.

I don't think it is actually going to happen, but F9 makes far more sense to me than any other potential acquisition.

All the airline stocks are up; they got a bump from Delta's forecast rpm statement being less ugly than expected.

The “assets” being discussed here, like the UA A319s from China Southern, are leased airplanes. The deal is with the leasing company and not the airline.

If you walk up to the Hertz counter you deal with Hertz, not the guy who returned the car yesterday.

In the case of Pan Am, UAL bought turn-key operations from an operating carrier. The LHR deal occurred in 1990 prior to the Pan Am bankruptcy and subsequent shutdown in ‘91.

Big difference.

I believe the Pan Am acquisition also included highly coveted slots/Pacific Routes, definitely a different animal.

The first Pan Am deal was the Pacific Division and included airplanes and crews. The huge takeaway was United got more routes and authority to fly them than planes and crew. That purchase was the only thing Ferris did which actually made cash for UAL.

It also sparked huge domestic growth and airplane purchaseS when Wolf took the helm of UAL. At its peak UAL had almost the same number of pilots then as it does today combined with CAL and new hires.

Yup.

UAL purchased the entire Pan Am “Pacific Division” lock, stock, and barrel in 1986. This included all the planes, slots, route authorities, equipment, real estate, spare parts, and pilots. It was the equivalent of Pan Am splitting in two and UAL merging with one of the halves.

It was also perhaps the only thing Dick Ferris ever got right and a completely different animal than simply leasing some available airplanes on the open market.

If you have brake fans, you need brake fans. The fan shroud acts like a heat shield, and holds the brake heat in. Even in a light 319, low auto brakes, you get hot brakes. Pretty much every single time.

On a positive note, you don't hear APU's screaming on the ramp. On a negative note, that is because every single airbus on the ramp has dual SCREAMING brake fans on. They are louder and more obnoxious than the APU.

3 years flying the bus at UAL I think I got hot brakes 5 or 6 times. Hot and high? Put external fans on the ramp at those very few airports.

321's I am not sure. Maybe more useful. I only flew them with brake fans.

Kirby doesn’t lie, his truths change. I’d wait for one of his shareholder presentations to see what he commits to publicly.

Hopefully they get them and they’re growth aircraft.

Interesting perspective, never thought of that.

The handful we fly without them do get hot brakes often, but they do seem to cool off faster too.

Yes, those things are obnoxiously loud.