Interesting Article about SWA from Motley Fool....

[redflyer65]

General,

You getting more like Bagdad Bob everyday.

Cash Generator? Where do you get this crap?

You guys still have BILLIONS in debt and massive pension obligations. The same as GM when they IPO'd again. Definitely not a 'clean' IPO with great books coming out.

 

[Bobby Orr 4]

[QUOTE Your culture at SWA has been smashed by your merger, treating your fellow pilots like DIRT. That may never be repaired. Good luck!


Bye Bye---General Lee[/QUOTE]

Are you referring to posts on websites by anonymous children? The AT guys I have met flying the line or at the bar appear thrilled to be on the swa partition. Captains that have flown with ex-AT guys have all told me they are great guys, perform professionally, and are happy to be here. Please tell me you are not posting something as ridiculous as the above based on quotes from losers (on both sides) from FI.
When I fly through ATL, the AT pilots I meet in the terminal all smile and say hello. Not flipping me off telling me to go F myself.
I have personally never treated anyone like dirt, unless they had earned it.

 

[maxblast72]

It was $18 billion in 2008. Here is what the CEO said in the conference call yesterday via Seeking Alpha:

"Finally, we will hit our $7 billion debt reduction target to get to $10 billion in net debt. We generated $700 million of free cash flow this quarter and reduced our adjusted net debt to $13.8 billion. In 18 months, we've used our cash flow to reduce our net debt by over $3 billion and making modest but prudent investments in our fleet product facilities and technology."



So, in 18 months DL paid down $3 billion in debt. That is amazing. The total debt has been reduced by $7 billion, and by the end of the next year it should be down to $10 billion, and at that point the interest payments will be reduced by about $500 million PER YEAR. That is called a revenue generator, being able to post profits and pay down loads of debt at the same time.



Bye Bye---General Lee

How about that "ticking time bomb" pension obligation General?

From page 76 of the latest Delta 10-K, the pension obligation went from $9.3 billion underfunded on 12/31/10 to $11.5 billion underfunded on 12/31/11 ($8 billion in plan assets versus $19 billion in obligations). Delta is predicting they will get a 9% return on plan assets. The state of California just announced they got a 1% return on their pension plan assets for the last fiscal year (ending 6/30/12) and Bernanke is promising low rates for another 2-3 years.

It seems to me that Delta will have to contribute more and more each year to keep the underfunding from getting really out of control (and we are talking extra hundreds of millions). Spin away General.

 

[waveflyer]

[QUOTE Your culture at SWA has been smashed by your merger, treating your fellow pilots like DIRT. That may never be repaired. Good luck!


Bye Bye---General Lee

Are you referring to posts on websites by anonymous children? The AT guys I have met flying the line or at the bar appear thrilled to be on the swa partition. Captains that have flown with ex-AT guys have all told me they are great guys, perform professionally, and are happy to be here. Please tell me you are not posting something as ridiculous as the above based on quotes from losers (on both sides) from FI.
When I fly through ATL, the AT pilots I meet in the terminal all smile and say hello. Not flipping me off telling me to go F myself.
I have personally never treated anyone like dirt, unless they had earned it.[/QUOTE]

This^^^^
Said it 1000 times
Never confuse FI w/ reality-

 

[texman]

[QUOTE Your culture at SWA has been smashed by your merger, treating your fellow pilots like DIRT. That may never be repaired. Good luck!


Bye Bye---General Lee

Are you referring to posts on websites by anonymous children? The AT guys I have met flying the line or at the bar appear thrilled to be on the swa partition. Captains that have flown with ex-AT guys have all told me they are great guys, perform professionally, and are happy to be here. Please tell me you are not posting something as ridiculous as the above based on quotes from losers (on both sides) from FI.
When I fly through ATL, the AT pilots I meet in the terminal all smile and say hello. Not flipping me off telling me to go F myself.
I have personally never treated anyone like dirt, unless they had earned it.[/QUOTE]

This is exactly how it has been for me. AT is a great group.

 

[General Lee]

General,

You getting more like Bagdad Bob everyday.

Cash Generator? Where do you get this crap?

You guys still have BILLIONS in debt and massive pension obligations. The same as GM when they IPO'd again. Definitely not a 'clean' IPO with great books coming out.

So, paying down $3 billion in debt in 18 months isn't a revenue generator? How about making $2.5 billion in ancillary revenue last year alone? You still don't see it? You may need to hit the Walmart vision center next time you have a pm layover in LBB, get those eyes checked..... Making that much per year while paying billions for a new JFK terminal and LGA expansion means revenue generation. You might actually need LASIK surgery apparently.



Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[FlyinGuy]

It is easy to pay down debt when you had the courts throw out your prior obligations!!! I say nice work on paying some down, but let's not forget about all that debt that was tossed out on that magical day before the new laws came into effect.

 

[redflyer65]

General,

What happened to all those DL Captains that hit age 60 during Oct and Nov 2005? I've heard some pretty bad stories about how they walked away with basically nothing, right between the bankruptcy being announced and age 65 kicking in just in December (too little too late).

 

[General Lee]

General,

What happened to all those DL Captains that hit age 60 during Oct and Nov 2005? I've heard some pretty bad stories about how they walked away with basically nothing, right between the bankruptcy being announced and age 65 kicking in just in December (too little too late).

If they didn't take the lump sum option before the BK, then they didn't do very well. If they were close to 60 at that time, they should have taken it. I don't think 65 was a sure thing just before the BK.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[fr8doggie]

Age 65 didn't happen until December of 2007.