Tweet
Very open, honest, and no nonsense.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...TL&type=travel
Some excerpts:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...TL&type=travel
Some excerpts:
Q: Many Americans perceive flying as a painful experience. Why?
A: Because it is in many cases. (Laughter) There's a reality today that is just different than maybe 10 or 20 years ago. It can be annoying and take a long time to get through security. In many people's minds the industry has nickel and dimed customers and has added fees for a lot of things that used to be included in the base fare. We've helped lead that to some extent, although we like to think that we're a little different than the other guys because in every case we've added fees we've also correspondingly lowered our base fare.
Q: Does Spirit annoy people?
A: I think we do in some cases. But I actually think we annoy people who don't fly us more than we annoy people who fly us.
Q: Did you ever question charging these fees, saying the risk is too high?
A: In 2006, we decided we were going to run Spirit as an airline that competes on the basis of price and price alone. Making that decision made it easier for us to make other decisions about how to run the business that are probably very difficult for other airlines. You start asking yourselves why would I put fewer seats on the airplane than the airplane can hold?
Q: What led to that decision?
A: At some point you've got to get tired of losing money. (Laughter) No, really. That's it. I mean the business wasn't working. We grouped every airline into two buckets: airlines that make money all the time and airlines that make money in good times but give it all back in bad times. The airlines that made money all the time were extremely high premium airlines or extremely low-cost airlines. There was almost no one in the middle.
...
Q: At what point does the price of oil make it impossible for Spirit to make money?
A: Our business model works at higher fuel prices. Would it work at any fuel price? Well, I can't say that. Because the density of our airplanes is so high, we need to raise our ticket prices less than the rest of the industry. Between New York and Florida, for example, both we and JetBlue fly the A320 airplane. They put 150 seats on the plane, we put 178. If oil prices go up such that it costs $100 more in fuel to fly, JetBlue's got to get that over 150 people, we've got to get it over 178.
...
Q: What keeps you up at night?
A: Big fuel price shocks, another 9/11 kind of event that changes the way people think about travel. It's not that I obsess about those things but I live with the ongoing recognition that you could wake up one morning and the world is just really different. I worry about what's going to happen that I can't quite predict and will I be aware enough, active enough and flexible enough to be able to react quickly enough to deal with it.
A: Because it is in many cases. (Laughter) There's a reality today that is just different than maybe 10 or 20 years ago. It can be annoying and take a long time to get through security. In many people's minds the industry has nickel and dimed customers and has added fees for a lot of things that used to be included in the base fare. We've helped lead that to some extent, although we like to think that we're a little different than the other guys because in every case we've added fees we've also correspondingly lowered our base fare.
Q: Does Spirit annoy people?
A: I think we do in some cases. But I actually think we annoy people who don't fly us more than we annoy people who fly us.
Q: Did you ever question charging these fees, saying the risk is too high?
A: In 2006, we decided we were going to run Spirit as an airline that competes on the basis of price and price alone. Making that decision made it easier for us to make other decisions about how to run the business that are probably very difficult for other airlines. You start asking yourselves why would I put fewer seats on the airplane than the airplane can hold?
Q: What led to that decision?
A: At some point you've got to get tired of losing money. (Laughter) No, really. That's it. I mean the business wasn't working. We grouped every airline into two buckets: airlines that make money all the time and airlines that make money in good times but give it all back in bad times. The airlines that made money all the time were extremely high premium airlines or extremely low-cost airlines. There was almost no one in the middle.
...
Q: At what point does the price of oil make it impossible for Spirit to make money?
A: Our business model works at higher fuel prices. Would it work at any fuel price? Well, I can't say that. Because the density of our airplanes is so high, we need to raise our ticket prices less than the rest of the industry. Between New York and Florida, for example, both we and JetBlue fly the A320 airplane. They put 150 seats on the plane, we put 178. If oil prices go up such that it costs $100 more in fuel to fly, JetBlue's got to get that over 150 people, we've got to get it over 178.
...
Q: What keeps you up at night?
A: Big fuel price shocks, another 9/11 kind of event that changes the way people think about travel. It's not that I obsess about those things but I live with the ongoing recognition that you could wake up one morning and the world is just really different. I worry about what's going to happen that I can't quite predict and will I be aware enough, active enough and flexible enough to be able to react quickly enough to deal with it.