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SPIRIT AIRLINES may shut down

I fly JetBlue a lot......get a little comfortable with it.
 
If jet fuel prices doesn't come down, both Frontier and JetBlue are toast.
There is reporting that the association representing budget airlines are asking for a 2020/2021 type bailout due to high jet fuel prices as a result of the Iran war. I couldn't post it as it is behind a paywall.
 
There was a brief online article from a Canadian outlet a few days ago about Spirit ceasing operations. The Canadian connection to Spirit is that a number of people living in Southern ON use Spirit but have to drive across the international border to do so. They could use small airports near by the border such as Niagara Falls.

I'm just wondering if the Spirit shutdown is affecting any fellow Canadians here on TUG.
 
There was a brief online article from a Canadian outlet a few days ago about Spirit ceasing operations. The Canadian connection to Spirit is that a number of people living in Southern ON use Spirit but have to drive across the international border to do so. They could use small airports near by the border such as Niagara Falls.

I'm just wondering if the Spirit shutdown is affecting any fellow Canadians here on TUG.
Canadians have used multiple airlines to fly from US airports. I know many from southern Ontario would drive to Buffalo. We actually did that flying to Canada to visit my parents near Toronto. We flew Southwest to Buffalo and rented a car. Then flew back home from Buffalo.
 
I'm just wondering if the Spirit shutdown is affecting any fellow Canadians here on TUG.
Nope, not us. We did take Jet Blue one time from (cant remember which) Buffalo or Rochester to Orlando. We have taken many other flights out of Buffalo and even Niagara Falls NY airports to various cities in the US but we used American, Delta or United. The way our dollar is now and the cost of gas and a hotel room and possibly parking at the airport (we usually get a hotel with 7-14 days of parking), it doesnt make sense financially for us to do the extra 2 hour drive to fly out of NY as we dont save very much anymore.
The one thing we really liked about flying out of there is that on our return we can shop for our limit of liquor/beer and take it across the border in our car even if we have flown with just a carry-on.

~Diane
 
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Canadians have used multiple airlines to fly from US airports.
Yes, we have too. Once or twice we flew from the Bellingham Airport which is about a 30-minute drive from the international border. Also, a number of times we flew in and out of the Seattle airport, about a 2.5-hr. drive from the border.

However, never have we used Spirit Airlines.
 
Yes if Alaska wasn't busy integrating Hawaiian they might be interested in buying JetBlue. That merger would get approved since there is almost no overlap in routes.
Alaska would likely only be interested in their routes and gates on the West Coast.

Alaska's current strategy is to be the dominant carrier in western North America. Jet Blue is primarily an east coast carrier, so it's not a good match for Alaska's business plan.

Alaska aggressively went after Virgin America because of VA's California presence. Alaska had pretty much taken over the Pacific NW, but that market is just a fraction of the CA market, and Alaska was not a big player in CA. So, Alaska coveted VA's gates and slots in major CA airports, intra-CA routes, and routes to the east coast from CA.

Alaska acquired Hawaiian to continue to build their presence in west coast, and to dominate the Hawaii market from the west coast, and it also sets them up in the trans-Pacific market.

Alaska's sees Delta as their biggest threat. A major concern for Alaska is to make Alaska more attractive than Delta to western North America frequent flyers who buy high value tickets. In that regard, it is key for them to be part of an airline network that spans the globe. That is why they had to get into OneWorld, so that frequent would be able to use their miles to get anywhere they wanted. OneWorld also needed Alaska, because without Alaska they had a big void area in western North America. Another key concern for Alaska is to ensure that their frequent flyer program is more attractive than Delta's.
 
Alaska would likely only be interested in their routes and gates on the West Coast.

Alaska's current strategy is to be the dominant carrier in western North America. Jet Blue is primarily an east coast carrier, so it's not a good match for Alaska's business plan.

Alaska aggressively went after Virgin America because of VA's California presence. Alaska had pretty much taken over the Pacific NW, but that market is just a fraction of the CA market, and Alaska was not a big player in CA. So, Alaska coveted VA's gates and slots in major CA airports, intra-CA routes, and routes to the east coast from CA.

Alaska acquired Hawaiian to continue to build their presence in west coast, and to dominate the Hawaii market from the west coast, and it also sets them up in the trans-Pacific market.

Alaska's sees Delta as their biggest threat. A major concern for Alaska is to make Alaska more attractive than Delta to western North America frequent flyers who buy high value tickets. In that regard, it is key for them to be part of an airline network that spans the globe. That is why they had to get into OneWorld, so that frequent would be able to use their miles to get anywhere they wanted. OneWorld also needed Alaska, because without Alaska they had a big void area in western North America. Another key concern for Alaska is to ensure that their frequent flyer program is more attractive than Delta's.
Agree with everything you said. Alaska and JetBlue seem similar to me. I'm curious why JetBlue wasn't able to gain a strong foothold in NYC and Boston like Alaska did in Seattle and Portland. Alaska has somehow gotten customers to pay hundreds more than Delta on the same routes. Delta's yields in Seattle are not good. Delta is doing far better in Boston and JFK expanding at the expense of JetBlue. Maybe customers in the Pacific Northwest are far more loyal to the local airline that customers in the Northeast?
 
Yes, we have too. Once or twice we flew from the Bellingham Airport which is about a 30-minute drive from the international border. Also, a number of times we flew in and out of the Seattle airport, about a 2.5-hr. drive from the border.

However, never have we used Spirit Airlines.
Yes. Aren't 80% of the cars in the parking lot at the Bellingham airport from BC?
 
Agree with everything you said. Alaska and JetBlue seem similar to me. I'm curious why JetBlue wasn't able to gain a strong foothold in NYC and Boston like Alaska did in Seattle and Portland. Alaska has somehow gotten customers to pay hundreds more than Delta on the same routes. Delta's yields in Seattle are not good. Delta is doing far better in Boston and JFK expanding at the expense of JetBlue. Maybe customers in the Pacific Northwest are far more loyal to the local airline that customers in the Northeast?
when I've compared prices, Alaska and Delta have been similar.

Alaska was able to develop it's presence on the West Coast after US Air and American flubbed their respective acquisitions of PSA and Air Cal, while United messed up their position in the west. All three of them seemed to look at their west coast operations as feeders for cross-country flights, instead of looking at the west coast as a market by itself, where flying north-south is more important than flying east-west. That left the market open for Morris/Southwest and Alaska to move in.

Re United. I lived in the Bay Area until 1993, when I relocated to Puget Sound. I had been a steady United customer, and when I arrived in Seattle I continued to fly United back and forth to CA. United had a strong west coast presence, going back to the time when they got the Post Office contract for flying mail on the west coast. When I got to Seattle in 1993, United had the entire first block of check in stations on the right as you came to the airport, with a full set of skycaps out front. They were one of the principal airlines at SeaTac. Then over the years they shriveled.
 
Praying for this company to emerge as a new airline company.
 
Praying for this company to emerge as a new airline company.
That won't happen. It will be sold off as pieces. Some of their gates sold to different airlines. Maybe someone will take over the leases on some of their aircraft as I understand they are newer Airbus planes. At the end of the day there will be one less airline.
 
Praying for this company to emerge as a new airline company.
If that was going to happen, it would have occurred as part of a restructuring of debt during the BK
The Bond holders were not letting go of the assets for a restructuring
As the CEO said on CNBC this morning
Too many things went wrong at the same time for them to survive
 
If Jet Blue is in trouble that would eliminate our direct flight from Richmond,Va to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida.
 
There was a brief online article from a Canadian outlet a few days ago about Spirit ceasing operations. The Canadian connection to Spirit is that a number of people living in Southern ON use Spirit but have to drive across the international border to do so. They could use small airports near by the border such as Niagara Falls.

I'm just wondering if the Spirit shutdown is affecting any fellow Canadians here on TUG.

Spirit stopped flying out of Niagara Falls during the pandemic and did not return. They flew out of Rochester but I doubt a lot of South Ontario went that far out of the way to fly on Spirit. They never flew out of Buffalo. I often peak at the license plates in the parking lot when I am driving by the Buffalo airport and in the past there could be 30% or more Ontario plates. It does not seem that high anymore. probably 15 % but that's just random guessing on my part.

On the other hand we would often drive up to Toronto to charter to Mexico or the Dominican Republic. We have only done that once since the Pandemic as the cost savings has dwindled though parking, hotel, and I think Taxation rates. Even with a good exchange rate prices started to come closer together. If I was flying to Europe for a week I might consider Toronto because of direct flights but that has not been in our plans lately.
 
Hopefully all the employees harassing passengers over bag sizes are happy with how they did their jobs all those years.
 
Regulators killed the Buyout of Sprit by JetBlue a few years ago. Ridiculous. But on the other hand if Spirit folds it may provide some relief to JetBlue? Also there is some veiled hope that fuel prices may ease due to a pause in Iranian hostilities and the flow of traffic via the Straight of Hormuz.

I don't think it was right for the regulators to block that deal but I have the feeling if it went though it would have sucked Jet Blue right down with it. Jet Blue may go down or restructure. The attempt at the Spirit take over was a typical we are not growing enough to pay the debt but we can borrow more if we buy something and claim the synergies (layoffs) will pay for all of this. What made weak plan worse was that Frontier started a bidding war which made the economics of a merger less attractive not mention paying the Lawyers and bankers money to do all this. At the end of the day Jet blue got stuck paying Spirit a 69 million dollar break up fee and 400 million to the Spirit shareholders. The only good thing that came out of this is Jet Blue seems to have a much better CEO now.
 
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