As much as I would love a hub in MCO, I doubt it makes financial sense. Not unless UA does all the flying for our JV partners. Maybe not even a hub, but a W pairing for the WBs. There is money to be made, but much more difficult compared to the rest of the network. I doubt the juice is worth the squeeze imo.

It sounded like the parking of the 757 was because the 777/787 can offer premium seating for our pax out of SFO/LAX. It didn’t sound fuel driven, but product driven. The fact that it’s horribly inefficient probably didn’t help its case

You guys fantasize about "Brooks Brothers blue" in DFW and publicly muse about market opportunities created less than 24 hours after the closure of an airline that provided over 7,000 jobs. Pretty wild stuff. Making the Delta stereotype look like nothing.

This feels like a reddit thread where there is a bunch of bots and trolls trying to **** everyone off. Hopefully any neutrals reading can see through it.

Where are the mods?

Username checks out.

Why? If you don’t think mgmt at every airline was making moves to capitalize on this weeks or months ago, you’re delusional. It’s business, and business doesn’t care about your sense of decorum, and the ruthless moves being made behind the scenes that are some kind of emotional trigger for you, are paying your profit sharing and ensuring your future job security. If that offends you, I’d get off the internet or find another line of work. Did you object when we launched Basic Economy with the sole purpose of attacking Spririt and the ULCCs? How about DAL and AA when they did the same? Managements goal was never to share the sandbox, it was to own it.

I have many friends at NK, some of which I helped get hired here, some went elsewhere, some rode it to the end on a gamble or fears of starting over and a false sense of hope. We do what we can to help those we can, but the business cycle never sleeps, not for a moment. Welcome to the industry if there is your first time seeing this. Yeah, it sucks for a lot of people, it will pass and they’ll move on, in the best hiring environment this has ever happened, in the history of this industry. I have a close friend who was 20+ years seniority there, just recently finished indoc at DAL. Like it or not, it’s cut throat and your employer succeeds on management and VPs who, if they shared your sense mourning for the other guy, would get left in the dust and we’d all be worse off, against the ones who “buy property when there is blood in the streets.” It’s because of those types (and our unions) the NK pilots have a place to land and start over, with good pay and benefits.

Cycle of life. Don’t think for a second our competitors wouldn’t pick us clean at a moments opportunity. At the end of the day we’re all cogs in the machine, we have zero influence on the direction of the ship, and all we can do is help each other out. At the moment, that means getting every NK pilot on property that wants a spot.

Hopefully ALPA steps up to the plate in a big way and helps these pilots out with some sort of preferential hiring. I really feel for the Spirit employees and hope they all land on their feet soon.

United ALPA has been doing that since Spirit announced the first furlough.

Because this is the pilot forum, not the management forum, and it's in poor taste. Could give a rats ass about the rest of your ranting.

Spirt not only made money but had the highest margins of any carrier in the US at 10%-15% for a decade hubbing in FL.

The legacies don't have the cost structure of a ULCC and as such wouldn't be able to accomplish the same though.

You are correct that the vacation market just does not allow legacies to make money, MCO is basically a loss leader for all intents and purposes, same as LAS. You sell the business traveler high priced corporate paid tickets all year and they redeem those points to take the family to Disney.

Well stated! This is a vicious industry, like it or not!! The adage of “you’re not a real airline pilot until you’ve been furloughed, bankrupt or divorced” is a pretty accurate statement. I’m two out of the three so it’s a pretty good batting average. I know I’m gonna sound like the crusty old guy, but people in their 20s and 30s have no idea what this industry was like 30 years ago. Be thankful for what you have and prepare for the proverbial “rainy day”, because it IS coming.