I did think something about animal welfare for a few moments myself.
The entire Republican party is the very soul of class.
/s
Well, the two of them are well surrounded by bull.
It must be Friday, because there’s yet another Republican congressman who can’t keep his dick in his pants.
Spirit Airlines just shut down, stranding thousands of passengers, citing, at least in part, the higher gas prices. The right, naturally, blamed Biden. Apparently this wouldn’t have happened if Biden had allowed them and JetBlue to merge, in violation of anti-trust laws.
Aren’t Republicans ostensible capitalists? You know, ‘If a business can’t make it on its own, it doesn’t deserve to survive’?
No, Republicans are: “If a business fails, we must blame Democrats, even if we hold all of Congress, the presidency and the supreme court.”
JetBlue likely dodged a bullet by not being allowed to acquire Sprit. Nobody could have foreseen the dramatic rise in jet fuel prices due to the ill-considered war in Iran and subsequent blocking of the Strait of Hormuz. Any acquisition or merger always costs money initially and therefore involves some amount of risk. You hope it will ultimately pay off, but in the current environment the acquisition of Spirit might have been a millstone around the neck of JetBlue that dragged it under as well.
Sounds like they asked for a bailout a few weeks ago but it was refused.
I’m old enough to remember flying before deregulation. I remember flying from San Diego to Lancaster in the early-'70s to visit my dad. Flying then couldn’t have been that expensive. I’m old enough to remember how airlines competed on amenities, since ticket prices were regulated. ‘We have more legroom!’ ‘We have sexier stewardesses!’ (That’s what they were called back then.) ‘We have better food!’ Since deregulation, it’s all about cramming as many money-givers as possible, without regard to amenities. You want amenities? Fork over the cash. It’s all about charging less than the other airline, because people will choose to pay less, even if they have to pay more in order to check a bag. Eventually, in the race to the lowest ticket price, someone is going to find out that margins are thin, and disruptions in the cost of doing business will push them into bankruptcy.
I know that deregulation was meant to ‘democratise’ flying, And it has. But I think it’s making it more difficult to run an airline.
The New York Times reported that some investors in Spirit Airlines opposed the government bailout.
In recent weeks, the airline had been negotiating a $500 million lifeline from the Trump administration. Some of the investors that Spirit owed money to opposed the terms of the bailout, under which the government could have ended up owning 90 percent of Spirit, because it would have left them in a worse financial position if the airline eventually failed. Some Republican lawmakers were also opposed to a government bailout of Spirit.
Also, it seems unlikely that Spirit would have turned things around even if the $500 million had been provided. Most likely, that would just have delayed the failure.
So at least the Treasury saved itself $500 million.
Yes but think of all the Trump grift that could have happened if it went through.
So, can we really say the American tax payer won?
The proposed government bailout was nixed by Spirit’s creditors because the rapacious Trump administration demanded first dibs on nearly all company assets if the airline eventually went under. That was unacceptable to Spirit’s creditors, as they would have gotten little or nothing in that eventuality from the bankruptcy court.
This was a bailout offer in name only.
Googling, Spirit Airlines has 131 Airbus A320 and A321 planes. Between that, its routes, landing slots and other assets, I’ll bet the company is worth more than $500 million from the government.
Owned or leased?
I don’t know.
I’m not an accountant, but you can’t just look at the assets on a balance sheet. You also have to look at liabilities.
If every one of those planes is mortgaged to the hilt (or leased, as was just pointed out), they’re not worth much.
Mostly leased, from what I recall.
This came up when Kristi Noem was looking to buy a 737 from them to refit into some kind of personal luxury jet at taxpayer expense. It turned out Spirit didn’t operate any 737s and hardly owned any aircraft at all, even if they were willing.
But the geniuses in the administration don’t seem to talk to each other or do research, so they may still have been thinking there was an odd airplane or two they could acquire this way.
This random article makes it sound like they owned 48 and leased 66 and planned to (or maybe since have) sell 20 of them to cover debts.
Well, the libertarians among them would say the government shouldn’t have prevented the merger, monopoly apparently being the true end state of capitalism.