Frontier Airlines

[StaySeated]

I heard it's supposed to be announced with the A320 delivery on July 20th. Also heard it is Indigo as the investor.

I can almost guarantee there will not be an announcement on the 20th, at least not the one we want to hear, but at this point anything is possible.

 

[Cornelius]

I don't believe it either, it is a good rumor though.

 

[king10pin02]

Spirit is run debt free(minus leases on planes/gates). Why would NK purchase F9 and be stuck with their debt. Spirit doesn't really use hub-spoke system so inheriting a pure hub like DEN makes no sense.

 

[Cornelius]

Spirit had debt before the IPO.

 

[fam62c]

I can almost guarantee there will not be an announcement on the 20th, at least not the one we want to hear, but at this point anything is possible.

The 20th is a Saturday, normally companies don't make press releases on weekends but anything is possible.

 

[brokedash]

The 20th is a Saturday, normally companies don't make press releases on weekends but anything is possible.

Maybe it will be after 5:00PM Eastern Time on Friday...

 

[gutshotdraw]

Maybe it will be after 5:00PM Eastern Time on Friday...

In DC they call that a "news dump" to try and slip embarrassing information past the media and hope nobody notices.

And it's been working well for, oh, about five years now.

 

[stillflyn]

Are there a bunch of pilots leaving Frontier for other airlines, or are the majority hoping for the best and sticking it out to see what happens?

 

[StaySeated]

I wouldn't say a bunch but we have guys leaving. We had a number of guys/gals leave for recall at AA (former TWA folks). We have had a few FO's leave for other airlines (spirit). We still have a bunch of folks flying in asia who took LOA back during BK and haven't returned yet.

I think most if not all are waiting to see how the separation plays out. There could be an announcement tomorrow during the conference call that may provide a little color on the "who" and the "what", but there are still a lot of unknowns even if we separate.

The Eischen award was a death sentence for most of the F9 list. I think it would be prudent for most to interview and at least explore other options. If we can unscramble the egg, great, if not I would like to have a "plan b".

 

[stillflyn]

Good luck....

 

[Shrek]

Stay Seated the LOA guys are all but back at F9 now. I know of only 1 still in Nam. A couple actually resigned out there and are permanent contract pilots for life now.

It would be nice to actually get some information at the conference call so pilots can adjust their career paths accordingly. Hope all is well with you.

 

[CrownandCoke]

when you guys split away from that ********************bag Republic operation, promise you'll take care of us Lynx guys :beer:

 

[i fly boxes]

I have to believe that spirit has something to do with this sale of frontier. Maybe not directly but maybe the indigo holding company that used to privately own spirit will be involved. Spirit has always had a slow by steady growth scheme of 7-10 planes a year. Try a city, if it works keep it if not get rid of it. They have tried to beef up the west coast stuff through vegas and they are expanding quite well in dfw. The acquisition of frontier would give them Denver, but it would also give them a lot of airbus aircraft today instead of 7 per year. And pilots to fly them. Frontier has already switched towards spirits way of doing things as well. I could see them buying frontier, shrinking den to profitable routes only, and relocating the rest of the airbus aircraft to help them expand into South America, while keeping their growth strategy in the states with their new aircraft orders.

 

[Little Mojito]

From the quarterly results call: Frontier has entered into an exclusive non-binding term sheet with a 3rd party purchaser. Several conditions (some of which require third party agreement) must be met in order for the non-binding agreement to becoming a binding. Here we go....

 

[SAABaroowski]

I have to believe that spirit has something to do with this sale of frontier. Maybe not directly but maybe the indigo holding company that used to privately own spirit will be involved. Spirit has always had a slow by steady growth scheme of 7-10 planes a year. Try a city, if it works keep it if not get rid of it. They have tried to beef up the west coast stuff through vegas and they are expanding quite well in dfw. The acquisition of frontier would give them Denver, but it would also give them a lot of airbus aircraft today instead of 7 per year. And pilots to fly them. Frontier has already switched towards spirits way of doing things as well. I could see them buying frontier, shrinking den to profitable routes only, and relocating the rest of the airbus aircraft to help them expand into South America, while keeping their growth strategy in the states with their new aircraft orders.

I don't think expanding in South America is in the plans at all. I just don't get why they would risk all the success to acquire a debt-laden Frontier, we shall see

 

[Cornelius]

Debt is great! Don't knock it till you try it!

 

[i fly boxes]

I don't think expanding in South America is in the plans at all. I just don't get why they would risk all the success to acquire a debt-laden Frontier, we shall see

I know they want to eventually open a focus city in bog and expand further south from there

 

[sqwkvfr]

when you guys split away from that ********************bag Republic operation, promise you'll take care of us Lynx guys :beer:

Yeah, like they did a few years back when they insisted that Lynx pilots take concessions along with the mainline folks, but only negotiated snapback provisions for themselves.

 

[StaySeated]

I don't think expanding in South America is in the plans at all. I just don't get why they would risk all the success to acquire a debt-laden Frontier, we shall see

Frontier "debt" is interesting. There is some bad debt (29 319 leases that were recently renegotiated) and some phenomenal debt (NEO order worthy of wet-dreams). Bedford negotiated the NEO order at a time when Airbus NA wanted to kill the Bombardier C-series. Who could have predicted that Bedford et al may actually "sell" off that order and still take delivery of the C-series (doubtful, but irony is pretty great). When you factor in the little issue about Frontier's NEO's being powered by GE engines instead of Pratt (I think we have the only GE NEO order) it keeps getting more interesting (GE owns the 319 leases).

 

[Wolf King]

nevermind..