A bankrupt airline is anxious not to lose customers, especially business travelers, and may be wary of cutting service below competitors' levels for fear of confirming passenger suspicions that the company is not long for this world. |
A situation where you have United, Delta and Northwest all in bankruptcy does make it easier to think about further consolidation. |
Airline mergers are very difficult. They require a lot of cooperation from labor, management attention and financing. All those things are in short supply when you're just struggling to survive. |
American Airlines is benefiting from much improved pricing and load factors, particularly in the U.S. domestic market, which are helping to offset very high fuel prices. |
An airline doesn't wait till it's down to its last dollar to file, ... It'll be difficult to keep dragging it out. Without new financing, from a purely cash perspective, they are already in trouble to be assured they can reorganize in bankruptcy. |
An airline doesn't wait till it's down to its last dollar to file. It'll be difficult to keep dragging it out. Without new financing, from a purely cash perspective, they are already in trouble to be assured they can reorganize in bankruptcy. |
As we've seen, these airlines never seem to shake out. |
As you shrink an airline, you also reduce your revenue- generating ability. Obviously, they'll try to shrink the unprofitable markets. |
During the recent downturn, the legacy carriers have gradually used up their financial cushion of aircraft and other assets they can borrow against. If they are forced to face a new crisis, they may fail more quickly than they have in the past. |
I think it's entirely possible they'll use the grace period (on the bonds) if they haven't heard from the ATSB by Monday, ... However (the end of the grace period on) Dec. 16 may be more of a make or break deadline. |
I think it's entirely possible they'll use the grace period (on the bonds) if they haven't heard from the ATSB by Monday. However (the end of the grace period on) Dec. 16 may be more of a make or break deadline. |
I would expect, eventually, they will have to terminate the pension plan. |
I wouldn't expect to see any major effects of these bankruptcy filings on passengers. I think both carriers will restructure successfully and continue flying. |
If you look at each one of these key requirements, in isolation, it appears to be a fairly good chance it will happen. But it only takes any one of them to fail, and it could drive American into bankruptcy. |
In addition, such an outcome would encourage other employee groups to join unions to improve their bargaining position in future contract talks. |