Don Carty and Fred Greed to run Virgin America

[FlyBoeingJets]

The only airline that will be immediately affected by VA will be UAUA.

You are right, to a point. It depends on how you define 'immediately'.

Virgin, in this work environment, will be able to attract pilots more cheaply than JetBlue did. The question is, will they treat them well and create a good company? We'll see.

Where is JetBlue going to put the A-320's still on order? I'm anticipating some brutal competition with Virgin, Airtran, and SWA. If you look at the route maps these competitors have been able to avoid head to head battles. But that is 'fixin to change!

IMHO JetBlue's aggressive growth, going forward, looks riskier than the growth so far. But contrary to JetBlue's critics I think the E-190 is a great idea. It attacks a slightly different market and challenges different competitors.

When the E-190 fleet looks stable you should get some 787's. But SWA/ATA may beat you to it.

 

[320AV8R]

While Crandall may have been anti-labor, at least he knew the financial essentials of running an airline.

Big Bob did make some mistakes, however.

He bought AirCal, expanded into the West, only to give up most of the routes. Later, Reno Air was bought to get back into the area he had previously given up.

He built large hubs from scratch in RDU, BNA, & to a lesser extent SJC. Only to slowly dismantle them, & being stuck with huge gate lea$e$ for gates he wasn't using.

The TWA acquisition seemed like a good idea at the time, but STL has been scaled down as well.

320AV8R

 

[Dave Siegel]

But contrary to JetBlue's critics I think the E-190 is a great idea. It attacks a slightly different market and challenges different competitors.

Hi, it's Dave again. The main market we are challenging with the E-190 is the pilot compensation market, which is the #1 threat to the success of any airline. The less pay for the pilots, the more pay for management, the true saviors of the industry. When people find low airline ticket prices, it's me they should be thanking, because we have been steadfast in our efforts to not let a bunch of overcompensated, overrated, maladjusted pilots destry the industry.

By the way, if your looking for JB Bus Drvr, here's a photo:


http://www.weblog.vannatijne.nl/wp-content/smurf.jpg

 

[Gorilla]

Big Bob did make some mistakes, however.

The TWA acquisition seemed like a good idea at the time, but STL has been scaled down as well.

320AV8R

Sure, he screwed up a bit, but no one ever accused him of being stupid. As for TWA, the buyout plans may have been in place under Crandall, but Carty was at the helm when it went down.

The general concensus among AA guys is that if Crandall was running the show around 9/11, we would have ultimately bled less than we did. The pain would have been sharper, but shorter.

The more I see of Arpey, the more I like the guy.