Lowecur,
Ok, here we go again. First of all, this promotion has its limitations. You must always read the fine print, didn't your Mom ever tell you that? If she didn't, I have a bridge I could sell you for CHEAP. (think about it, would we give up a free ticket to Europe for someone who buys two roundtrips for $69 each way? Then we really would lose money....)
Next, the Dalpa issue is important because if we continue to negotiate while the company does not take anything we say seriously, and we finally start section 6 negotiations in NOV---the company can say to an arbitrator that "we have been negotiating for 1 straight year (even though they haven't really come to the table)---and we need arbitration now..." Nope. We have to allow a significant amount of time between negotiating now and the start of Sec 6. in NOV---or we could get squeezed. We are in contact with the CFO right now with our investment bank that we hired which has looked at the books and has figured out exactly how much we should give to help. (The exact amount that would get us the needed financing to help the debt) We are ready to help now, but if they delay any longer---it will be their fault because we know the correct numbers. Also, our losses are getting smaller and smaller with the improving economy. Yes, we will show some sort of a loss tomorrow, but it will be a lot less than the other quarters (especially compared to last years fourth quarter loss). We had a good DEC (holiday season), and hopefully things will get better. But, if they do, then lowecur won't have anything to write about....
Bye Bye--General Lee
PS--Here's a part of an article I just got off the Dalpa web site--written by some guy from "The Street":
Analysts predict Delta Air Lines (DAL:NYSE - commentary - research) will show deep losses when it releases fourth-quarter results on Wednesday morning, but expectations are rising that the carrier will be able to turn things around in 2004.
Wall Street expects the company to lose $1.66 a share in the fourth quarter, which would be an improvement over the loss of $1.90 it had a year earlier and the loss of $3.97 it had in the final quarter of 2001.
While quarterly results from Delta and other carriers will likely show improvement, analysts have been stressing that the airline industry isn't out of the woods yet, and they predict the network carriers will lose more than $1 billion in the fourth quarter.
"Next week, the airlines will be reporting fourth-quarter earnings [or] losses. Different from last quarter, we do not expect results to beat the Street's expectations by large margins," said David Strine, airline analyst at Bear Stearns, in a research note. "We forecast losses for the legacy network carriers."
Nonetheless, the monthly results leading up to the fourth-quarter earnings season have shown improvement. October results showed the expected seasonal drop-off, but a strong Thanksgiving travel season fueled a solid November and carried over into December, surprising analysts. Of note was higher-than-expected traffic, which is a measure of revenue, and load factor, which is the percentage of seats filled on every flight.
With Delta having released December results on Jan. 6, analysts and investors already have an idea of what to expect Wednesday. Adding up Delta's results for the last three months of 2003 reveals fourth-quarter traffic should show a 3.4% gain over last year, while capacity will fall by 1.8%, both signs of improvement.
After a strong December, Wall Street analysts have raised their loss estimates above Delta's previously announced guidance.
also:
"We're seeing a good recovery in the economy, which should benefit the airlines as we move into the stronger spring season," said Ray Neidl, an analyst at Blaylock & Partners. And should oil come down to $27 or $28 a barrel, the two elements together could help the sector rally."
