My understanding is that SAABaroowski has accepted a job at NK. Both NK and G4 are what I'd classify as ULCCs. NK moreso than G4. I haven't looked at 2012 numbers but NK had the lowest CASM in the industry for 2010 and 2011, while also having the second lowest RASM. They have also grown slowly so they've got a lot of cash on hand; in excess of $400M.
I think that Baldanza (NK's CEO) put it best when asked which airlines he considered his competition. He said something like, 'none. Greyhound's our competition'. NK transports the backpack/flipflop crowd that uses a Hefty trash bag for luggage. While there's some money to be made there if you have a low CASM, NK's RASM is below all other airlines' CASM. Basically, the average NK passenger is a loss for every other carrier, including G4.
VX chose to go after legacy high revenue passengers, including tapping into GDS. Talk about painting a big red target on your back. There have been a few other startups in recent history that have gone after the high yield passenger and all of them have gone chap 7 (short list: Eos, Maxjet, Legend).
Unless NK strays out of its niche, I don't see them as a target for the legacies in the near future.
