A350-1000 and other Fleet News
04-16-2023, 05:37 AM
#511
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2010
Position: window seat
Posts: 12,544
04-16-2023, 05:52 AM
#512
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2010
Position: window seat
Posts: 12,544
If I remember correctly, you have posted many, many times about how JB is going to eat our lunch everywhere. I almost wonder if you have an above-average obsession with them? I don't think our mgmt is ignoring them. While I still think RA was a better CEO than EB, Ed is a "good" CEO and could even be "great" if he stopped being so infatuated with himself and social/political issues. I remember when SWA announced service to ATL. "They are going to take over the world!" some said. They are a good competitor in ATL, but they haven't eaten our lunch there. We responded appropriately and are still doing quite nicely thank you. If all your JB predictions were true, we'd have left BOS long ago. We're still doing well there, last I checked. It isn't always either-or. JB can have a good business model, AND we can still thrive, and occasionally kick the sh!t out of them when needed. Our mgmt is actually pretty good at that.
Also I always knew SWA buying AirTran was an awesome thing for DL. AT was a ruthless and irrational competitor. They did a lot of damage to DL's yields, but fortunatly for us their AC choice limited how severe they could strike us. Even when they got "transcon" planes, they still messed up by getting the baby 73-7's. Those two plane choices helped mitigate the damage they could do but they still did a lot. When SWA bought them, that put them quickly on the path to have baby 737's that paid more than our 777 and 747 CA and FO rates. SWA is a tough competitor, but they're very rational and sustainability is more important to them than simply being in yield trashing endless growth mode.
SWA buying AT was one of the absolute best things that could have happened to DL. It was only rivaled by Alaska CEO's arrogance when RA tried to hand them the west coast on a platinum platter full of Louis XIII and they flipped it onto his suit and said "NO DEAL SUCKA!" as they thought they had forever ownership and could be the left coast feeder for the entire industry on their terms. That bold blunder on their part forced RA's hand and he went at them hard.
Premium lay flat Trans Atlantic is a lot different than NYC-FLL super saver tickets or transcon/Caribbean red eyes. Their margins may not be as amazing as ours given the equipment they elected to use (for now) but dumping evermore lay flat TA seats at a fraction of our yields is something the bean counters will barely notice...until the day they really notice it, and by then it could be too late. History is full of "gradually, then suddenly" financial blunders. Not crushing them now while we can do it by barely making a dent in otherwsie eye watering numbers will one day come back to haunt us.
04-16-2023, 08:16 AM
#514
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2007
Posts: 4,613
* NYC 765 A was awarded to a July 98 fNWA hire back in Jan. 39xx
Last edited by Gunfighter; 04-16-2023 at 08:39 AM.
04-16-2023, 08:31 AM
#515
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2010
Position: window seat
Posts: 12,544
And the next ones up are 2007-08-10 and once that small group (1000ish total) has their chance it goes instantly to 2014+
04-16-2023, 07:51 PM
#517
Line Holder
Joined APC: Jun 2021
Posts: 51
The dynamics of it? Yes. Kicking back in Corinthian leather chairs swirling thousand dollar Scotch in a snifter and lighting Ghurka Royal Courtesan's with $100 bills is fun until the money runs out and you wish you had those Billions in burnback money back and are not faced with overlapping fields of fire from redundantly irrational critical mass competitors and suddenly have to shrink to profitability again.
The so called "pilot shortage" is somewhat saving them from themselves, but its sugar high in limiting competitors growth rates will only last so long. When the next "lost decade" happens we will have to deal with uber junior ULCC's who now seat dump millions of lay flat premium seats below our costs. We can deal with them now on our terms by peeling off some profits, or we can deal with them later on their terms by surrendering marketshare to salvage yields in a crumbling revenue environment.
IMO all such attempts now should be met with crushing resistance before the cancer spreads. But that requires long term thinking and B-schools don't focus on that anymore.
The so called "pilot shortage" is somewhat saving them from themselves, but its sugar high in limiting competitors growth rates will only last so long. When the next "lost decade" happens we will have to deal with uber junior ULCC's who now seat dump millions of lay flat premium seats below our costs. We can deal with them now on our terms by peeling off some profits, or we can deal with them later on their terms by surrendering marketshare to salvage yields in a crumbling revenue environment.
IMO all such attempts now should be met with crushing resistance before the cancer spreads. But that requires long term thinking and B-schools don't focus on that anymore.
04-17-2023, 08:59 AM
#518
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2010
Position: window seat
Posts: 12,544
04-17-2023, 09:01 AM
#519
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Oct 2008
Position: Taking up space
Posts: 262
04-17-2023, 09:11 AM
#520
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Joined APC: Jul 2010
Position: window seat
Posts: 12,544
