Politics & News

Only logged in members can reply and interact with the post.
Join SimilarWorlds for FREE »

Half a billion dollars to save 14,000 Spirit Airlines jobs? That's $40,000 per job (check my math)

Photo above – Passengers celebrate the news that Spirit now has service from Ft. Lauderdale to Costa Rica, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Raise your hand if you want to fly nonstop from Fort Lauderdale to Guatemala.

Frontier is America’s worst airline. Sprit is only 2nd worst in the nation. Trump wants to buy Spirit, to “save” 14,000 jobs. Stop laughing . . . he really said this (MSN link to Fortune Magazine below). That's going to cost $40,000 per job.

There are 500 million reasons this is a bad idea. First of all, if Spirit has anything worth saving, then a legitimate, operationally sound airline should make buyout. Waiting . . . waiting . . . all I hear is crickets. United Airlines bid on American Airlines earlier this year. Apparently NOBODY wants Spirit, because . . .

- It’s the worst for comfort

- worst for reputation

- 2nd least reliable

But you can see the potential in this takeover. The federal government already has many agencies (social security, IRS, FDA) with satisfaction ratings below 50%. DC bureaucrats might feel right at home running Spirit.

If Washington does take over Spirit, America will be trending. Russia nationalized an airline last year. Over 20 other nations have completely nationalized at least one airline, including Botswana, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. A bunch of European governments hold stakes in some of their flag carriers, but those stakes all fall well short of 50%. Those state owned shares are mainly to ensure tighter regulatory control . .. and to preserve jobs.

I don’t buy the White House story that the Spirit takeover is needed to save 14,000 jobs. In a market-based economy, corporate losers are supposed to go bankrupt, or be acquired by their better run rivals. In the airline world this means cutting unprofitable routes, selling unused gates, rationalizing fares, improving service – and usually cutting some headcount. The surviving headcount will be approximately proportional to the surviving number of daily flights, no?

Spirit Airlines' main hub is Fort Lauderdale. They’re trying to siphon off travelers who fly on Delta and Southwest to reach Disneyworld via Orlando's airport. No problem with that, as long as it doesn’t require a US government takeover. Why should DC spend half a billion dollars to compete with Delta, America’s top ranked airline?

America already has over a dozen carriers with international service, and 3 dozen more with domestic/regional flights. Does anybody really care if Spirit or Piedmont or Aztec are forced to mend their ways, or be bought out by a legitimate airline? The only people who care about nationalizing Spirit are the 14,000 employees, and some political strategists looking forward to the mid-term elections.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

MSN

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/economy/the-surprising-reason-a-spirit-airlines-bailout-could-be-bad-news-for-travelers/ar-AA21x2U1?ocid=BingNewsSerp

Top | New | Old

dale74 · M

True but greyhound and amtrack keep getting federal bailout i think they should fail also

View 2 more replies »

dale74 · M

@SusanInFlorida i agree and why amtrack is not profitable i will never understand with how high the prices are. I was looking at a trip across the northern boarder and it is like 1k a day for 8 days. That is more than a cruise ship

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@dale74 passengers - which must be delivered on time and alive - are always more expensive to transport than merchandise.

thiis is why an uber ride can cost $35 or more, but amazon prime deliveries are nearly free.

dale74 · M

@SusanInFlorida cruise ship train both passengers

MoveAlong · 70-79, M

Mmm, Spirit airlines is located in Fort Lauderdale. A mere 50 miles from Mar a Lago. I wonder if some of the executives of Spirit hobnob with trump and his buddies at the Palace? I don't know if that's true but it's the kind of scrutiny that trump has brought upon himself.

Some corporations that are important to the economy and employ hundreds of thousands should be able to acquire government loans if it looks lie they can be salvaged. But Spirit Airlines?

View 2 more replies »

GerOttman · 70-79, M

@SusanInFlorida No but he has staff and underlings and such.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@GerOttman wouldn't his entourage accompany him on air force one? it seats over 100 . ..

GerOttman · 70-79, M

@SusanInFlorida sure, the important ones. But what good is being elite if you can't have a few underlings in third class?

This comment is hidden. Show Comment

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@jshm2 good one. i almost put that in my post also

GerOttman · 70-79, M

Personal experience, it's a pretty darn uncomfortable aircraft. I had a window seat, would have been more comfortable on the other side of the window!

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@GerOttman i have not flown in years. i have arthritis. I was hospsitalized a week ago for treatment again.

GerOttman · 70-79, M

@SusanInFlorida sorry to hear that. my wife has been on infusions fr that for several years.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@GerOttman evidently ive reached the limits of medical science. i am pushing back on hip replacements. I dond't want to spend 2 years in a wheelchair recovering, only to find out my knees are going too.

good luck to your wife.

sunsporter1649 · 70-79, M

You missed the folks that fuel the aircraft, the folks that load and unload the baggage, the food service folks, the cleaning crews, the mechanics that insure the safety of the aircraft....

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@sunsporter1649 the original link implies the 14,000 is "all in"

sunsporter1649 · 70-79, M

@SusanInFlorida Unknown to you, those other workers are not employees of Spirit, but contract workers working for one of the service companies whose jobs will also disappear

swirlie · 31-35, F

Spirit Airlines is a 'nothing' airline. It started out as a trucking company in the early 1960s. Then they bought an airplane and went into the charter airline business for leisure travelers to places like Vegas, Bahamas and Atlantic City and re-branded their trucking business to be called "Charter One", the airline to be called "Charter One Airlines".

Charter One were well known for hauling around the polyester leisure suite-class of tourist travelers of the late `70s, early 80s... you know, the cheap gambling-type who wouldn't pay 25 cents to watch a peep show of the Virgin Mary taking a bubble bath?

When Freddy Laker of Great Britain introduced low-cost flying to the world in the early 1980s, he gave the bus depot class of traveler an opportunity to fly instead of taking a Greyhound bus cross-country. Enter Capital One.

Then in the early 1990s, Capital One Airlines changed their name to Spirit Airlines after buying an old jet previously owned by Eastern Airlines that had been sitting in the Nevada desert in mothballs for years. Donald Trump did the same thing.

Spirit Airlines got into trouble after entering the scheduled passenger market and attempting to go head-to-head with the likes of Delta Airlines and AA. Guess who lost?

And so NOW, American tax dollars are potentially being used to save Spirit Airlines from Chapter 11? That is precisely why the USA is in deep financial trouble today, from incompetent people making bone-headed considerations like this one involving a 'nothing' airline.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@swirlie you're not wrong. but is there any other reason to bail out Spirit, other than to harvest 14,000 union/worker votes for the midterms?

swirlie · 31-35, F

@SusanInFlorida
No other reason at all that I can see, but bailing them out in the short term may only be a valid strategy until after the mid-term voting takes place, after which all funding may mysteriously vanish. I think most Trade Unions across the US know who Trump is by now and a bailout may not win votes for Trump anyway.

Add a comment...