Frontier Airlines

[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..

 

[johnsonrod]

There is some history between the management teams (an incestuous industry). Not speculating here, but it is true that Ben Baldanza, the CEO of Spirit, formerly worked for David Siegel, CEO of Frontier, while Siegel was commanding USAirways (before being merged with America West to stave off imminent liquidation and unemployment for thousands of pilots).

Again, no speculation. Who knows, maybe the two can work out a deal since they know each other quite well.... Having similar fleets is a starting point.

 

[fam62c]

I still can't see what Frontier has that is of significant enough value to make another airline want to buy it and pay for duplicate components (brand name, operating certificate, employees with years of service, facilities and equipment, etc.) that are not needed. Also, Frontier is not enough of a significant competitive threat to anyone else to warrant buying the company to eliminate a competitor.

I think we are looking at a private equity company or some other type of investment group that wants a whole airline or some type of deal where the airline is going to be parted out. If this were another airline like Spirit, JetBlue or VA this deal could have been done long ago at a lower price when the industry was weaker.

 

[Dart]

Interesting!!!

Spirit Airlines Announces Sale of Common Stock by Indigo
MIRAMAR, Fla., July 29, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spirit Airlines, Inc. (Nasdaq:SAVE) announced today the public offering of 12,070,920 shares of common stock by certain existing stockholders affiliated with Indigo Partners LLC ("Indigo"). Upon completion of the offering, investment funds affiliated with Indigo will no longer own shares of common stock of Spirit Airlines. The company will not receive any proceeds from this offering. Barclays is acting as the sole underwriter for the offering.
The shares of common stock are being offered pursuant to the Company's existing shelf registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on July 31, 2012. A final prospectus supplement describing the terms of the offering will be filed with the SEC and, when available, may be obtained from the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or from Barclays Capital Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY, 11717, Telephone (888) 603-5847 or by e-mailing [email protected].
In connection with the offering, the Company also announced that Messrs. William A. Franke and John R. Wilson have informed the Company that upon completion of the offering, they expect to resign as directors at the next board meeting, presently scheduled for August 7, 2013. Upon Mr. Franke's resignation, the Company's board intends to elect Mr. H. McIntyre Gardner, a director since 2010, as Chairman of the Board.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction

 

[i fly boxes]

There is some history between the management teams (an incestuous industry). Not speculating here, but it is true that Ben Baldanza, the CEO of Spirit, formerly worked for David Siegel, CEO of Frontier, while Siegel was commanding USAirways (before being merged with America West to stave off imminent liquidation and unemployment for thousands of pilots).

Again, no speculation. Who knows, maybe the two can work out a deal since they know each other quite well.... Having similar fleets is a starting point.

Don't forget about Ted Christie who is cfo at spirit and was at frontier before his two month stop at pinnacle.
It's going to be spirit or allegiant I think. Spirit to grow or allegiant to compete

 

[Toobdrvr]

Regarding ^^^^^, it has been said time and again, the new equity investor will NOT be another airline. Hopefully an entity with airline experience, but not an airline. I reserve my right to be proven wrong on this, but I' m fairly confident.

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.

To keep the record straight, we were in no position to bargain concerning the Lynx pilots, a battle we lost during the formation of Lynx itself ( but that's a different story). All we did was require that ALL other employee groups participate in concessions if we were to participate. What else should we have done, borne the burden alone? As far as snap backs ( which I will be SHOCKED if that ever actually happens), we were only in a position to negotiate our own terms. The Lynx pilots were represented by another Union (TWU I think?), who had the responsibility for their group. All other F9 work groups participated in concessions. Was that our fault, too?