A 20% increase in there takeover price, the share holders of Delta have no choice but to take it. Any thoughts?
Since this is the GA forum, my thoughts would be that I would rather fly my own plane than either one of these carriers.
Perhaps an admin can move this for you.
But seriously, the idea that creditors and stockholders rights should be denied so that a bunch of losers can stay in a business that is overcrowded with competitors is unjust. Delta is now going to pay the price for being one of the strongest, and thus, one of the last to go belly up. How this happens in a free market country is a shame.
I move that members of the Bar be forbidden to sit as judges and legislators! Who will second?
In a recent program on CNBC the former CEO of American Airlines stated that he had never owned AA stock and that he would NOT invest in any airline. I agree with him.
Never say never. There are some good airline stocks out there. I own Southwest stock. They have made money for over 30 years and have paid dividends, albeit small, for over 120 quarters now.
Much of WN’s success is due to their brilliant use of hedging fuel, where they ended up paying ridiculously low for fuel compared to most of the other majors. Now that fuel is falling (for now), other airlines are starting to share WN’s successes, most notably AA, which beat earnings expectations and managed to pull off a full year profit.
If the current fuel prices see a turnaround (more a when than an if), this could change, though.
That’s a rather simplistic view of Southwest’s success. I dare you to walk up to Herb in a bar and tell him that!
Southwest’s success comes not only from fuel hedging but the way they treat their employees and customers. They also do not have hubs. This allows them to get greater utilization out of their aircraft. Even considering the fact that they do not have overnight flights*, they are still able to get over 10-11 hours of utilization out of their aircraft. Can you imagine how much utilization there would be if they did operate overnight flights?
*By “overnight flights,” I mean flights that depart late at night or early in the morning (say, between 2200 and 0200) and arrive around 0600.
I like their current schedule, the early morning departures are not crazy early! But I agree with what you are saying.
Their key to success (my opinion): total efficiency.
Simplistic, but accurately describes why WN didn’t suffer with the other majors when they were all teetering on bankruptcy. No matter how efficient they are, they would have been hit much harder if it weren’t for the hedging.
I agree with you Newark 777 they made a great move locking their fuel prices in when the did, in fact that is the major reason why they stay “in the black”. Here in Tampa they start their flights at around 6am, they have10 gates run about 80 flights 7days a week. I can tell you this when they come to the gates its like a NASCAR pitstop bags off, bags in, fuel, couple bags of peanuts and away they go!!
ABC local news in Dallas reported the other night that the bonuses given to AA executives has virtually wiped out the profit margin. Pilot group is understandably up in arms after giving up so much. Linkety link
Giving out stock options as a form of payment doesn’t cut into the company’s profits, although I agree that executive pay like that is crazy, especially for a company that is just starting to pull into the black.
I hope and wish they do start getting some overnighters from the west coast to the east coast. Unfortunately, even if you leave early in the morning (~0600), you don’t get to the east coast until mid or late afternoon, thus wasting a day of your vacation or business trip.
I used to do those alot but my body says ‘no more’.
Actually, in the crazy world of GAAP accounting, the issuing of options does carry a bottom-line cost. A couple of years ago when the new accounting regulations went into effect, many companies missed their profit estimates because of the impact of options accounting.
I’m not a tax accountant so I can’t explain the details, but the curious can always search Google for ‘GAAP’ and ‘options’ to get the details.
The deal is officially off. 
Parker will spend 24 hours in jail and pay a $1,600 fine for his DUI.
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0221biz-parker0221.html
Keep in mind that at some airports you can not depart at 0600 in CA. SAN is 0630, SNA is 0700 and I think SJC has a curfew but dont know what it is.
Thats the nice part about a redeye, gets you to the east coast in time for breakfast and you dont waste all day in the air. I believe Southwest recently said in USA Today that they will not do that anytime soon though. Right now they do maintenance and such on planes at night at least that is what was said in the article.
KSJC CURFEW HRS 2300-0700 FAR 36 STAGE II, 2330-0630 FAR 36 STAGE III