It seems that almost every assumption the FLYi management made when starting out is proving to be wrong. First Mr. Skeen and the FLYi management said that they realized that the CRJ has relatively higher seat mile costs (than mainline jets), but that they would make up for this by flying the planes more hours (high frequencies, short turns). But because they initially unfortunately went the Southwest and JetBlue route of only having their admitedly low fares available on their website and 800 number (because joing Expedia, Travelocity, etc, would cost too much, they said), BUT unlike Southwest and JetBlue they don't have the name recognition AND gigantic advertising budget so those high frequencies and low fares still only led to 40% to 55% load factors. They assumed that oil prices would be in the $30 per barrel range and that assumption (with all the instability in the world) is also proving to have been VERY wrong especially since United and Delta are no longer paying FLYi's fuel bill. So after posting their HUGE (many, many many millions, I forget the exact number) loss last quarter they said that they would make their fares available to the Galileo system for travel agents but I STILL can't find their fares on the major internet travel sites (Expedia, etc), where most people now go to book their own travel arrangements, bypassing travel agents all together. And also, after that big loss, they said that the high frequency plan wasn't working so they would have to reduce frequencies in MANY of the markets they fly, so now you AGAIN have the problem of the high per seat mile costs of the CRJ because they are not in the air as many hours as initially planned. PLUS, as a result of the higher then expected losses, FLYi announced that fares would be RISING in MANY of their markets. Which brings us to their biggest issue...the AIRBUS problem. They only have two on the property (which hopefully will finish proving runs soon) and said that they would now have to defer any more deliveries unti 2007 because they need to conserve cash. This is a VERY big problem because management was banking on the Airbus to compensate for the CRJ's relatively high costs. And obviously, United is able to match whatever fares FLYi is charging out of their Dulles hub because (fairly or unfairly) they have bankruptcy court protection to fall back on. And other carriers like Northwest and Delta, etc, are matching FLYi's fares on routes where they directly compete, thus eliminating any fare advantage and giving people no real incentive to try FLYi, (because they can stay with their usual airline, get the same fare AND earn their usual frequent flyer miles and points) and that's IF people can find the fares because they still aren't on the major travel sites, as I said before. SO, you've got CRJ's sitting on the ground longer then planned, fares rising, fuel ridiculously expensive, only two Airbuses, intense fare competition from all the other airlines, fares that people can't find, and an around $80 million dollar payment due on aircraft in January. Sad to say but I think Skeen and the crew bet wrong and decided to go solo at the wrong time. It will be very interesting to see if FLYi does actually bid on that RFP that United put out for the flying AWAC has been doing. And if they do come back to UAL, you can rest assured FLYi, or ACA if they go back to that name, will receive far less compensation then United was offering last year when ACA first decided they couldn't take a hit on their compensation levels. The plot thickens!