Latest / Brian Thomas / IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff

Transcript

IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff · Brian Thomas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ever see the talk station Hey thirty on a Thursday,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: It is that time. I always look forward to this.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Talking with Jay ratl is always an enjoyable experience, regardless
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of what you're talking about with him, but on this
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: show it is almost always focused on aviation because he
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: is iHeartMedia's aviation expert. Welcome back, my friend, Jay. It's
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: always great having you on the show.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Plus your morning, and it was good to hear Joe's
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: voice this morning as well, I.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Know and reminded my listen. I want to thank everyone
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: for the prayers they sent out to Joe. He got
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: a clean bill of health after a little medical emergency
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: scare yesterday and it frightened the crap out of me.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Jay rat left because you know about Joe, Man, it
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: just does not work without Joe, in spite of the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: fact that Danny did a really good job. I don't
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: want to discount the Danny's after now, Joe's the machine
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: that makes things work around here. So that's the challenge
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: show prayers work.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: No.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Latest on the United Airline flight to hit a truck.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: This was the in Newark, right.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: It was. It was on final approach coming in from
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Italy and as it came down, it hit light pole
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: and then impacted apparently a bakery truck that was just
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: mining its own business, tooling down the expressway there in
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: New Jersey. Now, the video that was inside the cab
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: of the truck, the video that they had was horrific. Thankfully,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: we knew the drivers survived because you actually hear the
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: airplane coming in and you hear louder, louder, louder, and
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: then you see the tire out of his left window
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: and then the camera goes static. So immediately we had
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: everybody from Sean Duffy to others talking about pot pilot
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: air and other types of things, and I was just
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: like time out here.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: No no, no, no, no no.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: We got the National Transportation Safety Board that's coming in
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: to do their usual outstanding all star effort. And it
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: could be pilot air. We don't know that. There could
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: have been some computer issues on the flight deck that
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: was providing faulty, faulty data to the crew. There could
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: have been a mechanical issue at play.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Now, hey, Jay, it could have been a software upgrade.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: They didn't bother telling the pilots about that. I'm bumped.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's hope not right, So, but you know, and
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: you know this, the light pole hit a jeep and
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: then the plane apparently hit the truck. And I have
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: a lot of people that are saying, oh, you know,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: he's set for life, and I'm thinking I've been around
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: people that have been one of the few or only
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: survivors of a plane crash, and when you talk with
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: them and you see what they go through, I'm sorry,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: no amount of money in the world with some of
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: this serious PTSD that people have to suffer through for
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: the rest of their life, is worth it. And sometimes
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: I grow really tired of people that are looking for
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: a quick payday at any expense. And this poor guy
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: you talk about praying for him, I mean he may
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: be okay, you know, physically eventually, but mentally, I mean,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: you just hear that that engine coming down on top
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: of you, that's what you were hearing. That video is
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: just again, just absolutely horrific. But I am very confident
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: that the NTSB will find out exactly what took place.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: They'll give us a preliminary report thirty days after and
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: the final report eight to ten, maybe twelve months from now,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: and they'll outline exactly what happened. We'll learn and we'll
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: make commercial aviation safer as we're also result thankfully, everybody
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: on the plane safe before a guy on the truck safe,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: and everybody else on the interest. I mean, can imagine
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: being the car behind the truck.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Oh lord, I seeing it happen. I mean anywhere in
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the area, Jay, And of course compensation won't cover his pts,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: but it will at least reimburse them for the shorts
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: that he ruined.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Well, and you've been around people that have had to
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: go through these things where you know they've had this
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: sue for damages in this regard and it's not a
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: big party that everybody else thinks it is. So again,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I just I'm just praying he's going to be okay
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: because that looked like a young guy. But you know
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: it's any luck. He's scared to fly, so that's why
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: he just drives right. Yeah, So.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: That'll come back with well, yeah, that's the other element
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: of damages. Not only you have post traumatic stress if
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: many can't pay you for, but you probably will never
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: get on an airplane again because look what can happen.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: You scare the hell out of me every week on
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: this program, Jay Ratliff and I've never been a real
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: big fan of flying. Anyway, we'll bring Jay back. We'll
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: talk about some actually some really nice gestures in the
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: airline community, about Spirit Airlines employees losing their job and sorry,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: distance means service sucks to beu if you're on a
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: short flight, apparently on Delta More with Jay Ratliffe coming
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: up fifty five KRC, Hey get me talls station. Have
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: you ever been in a cockpit before? Hey? Thirty eight?
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: If about their CD talk station? Jay Ratliff, has he?
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: I heard me the aviation expert. We are enjoying the
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: pleasure of Jay every Thursday, beginning at A thirty through
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the end of the show, which I dearly love. Pivoting
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: over here before we get to Spirit Airlines, I I
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: saw your note here. British air Wise Airways is paying
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: pilots one hundred thousand dollars a year to not fly.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: How can we get a light Joe Drecker wants to
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: apply for that job.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Well, you have to be qualified to not fly. And
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: let me explain why they have flights coming into Chicago's
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Ohare Airport where you're coming in from, let's say London, Heathrow.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: You're landing at Chicago, you go to the international arrival terminal,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: your gate, you're dropping passengers off. The passengers have to
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: get off the bags and prey to have to get off.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: You've got the aircraft inspection that takes place, and then
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: once Customs is finished with you, that crew then taxis
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: the airplane back over to the other side of the
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: field where it's needed for the next flight. Now, the
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: delay and the time you arrive in the time everything
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: gets off the plane and the inspections are dumb to
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: the time you're able to slowly taxi that aircraft all
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: the way over to the outside the airport where it
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: needs to go is considerable. Sometimes it can be several
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: hours in duration. A lot of these pilots are timing
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: out because are on continuous duty once they land and
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: the clock is running. So British Airway says, wouldn't it
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: be better if we positioned pilots at O'Hare simply to
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: taxi that aircraft once it's finished from the international arrival
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: point over to where we need it for the next time.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: They did the math and said, this is going to
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: be good for customers. It's going to be good for
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: the pilots. One hundred thousand dollars sounds like a lot.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Well one year in Chicago, you live there, you know what.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's not it sounds like pilots.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Who actually leave the ground get a lot more money
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: than that. But you know, for somebody that wants to
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: be home every day that you know, you know, just
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: you know what, you know, it's there, So it's but
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: what a fun headline is though to see that, or
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe they could use that as kind of
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: the Siberia joke. You know, you mess up on the
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: line and we're going to put you on the ground
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: taxing airplanes at Chicago. Instead of making two hundred and
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: eighty thousand a year, you'll be making one hundred thousand
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: a year. But uh yeah, most pilots want to fly,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: But for those that want to stay on the ground
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: in taxi, yeah they can do it.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Well, it's couldn't there be sort of a sub license
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: for that. You're not taking off, you're not landing, So
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: maybe we just have like a truck driver's certifications, which
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: allows you to move an aircraft while it's still on
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: the ground.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: You can have fact, there's several maintenance people that are
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: qualified to taxi in aircraft, so you could go that route,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: but again you're still talking about somebody that gets paid
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: a great deal of money to work on planes, get
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: them back in service and things of this nature, versus
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: here you're paying somebody to patiently taxi at a very
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: very slow speed that aircraft over to the other side
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: of the airport. So they feel like the pilots are
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: the best way to go about that. And yeah, it's
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: gonna be interesting to see if this experiment works for him,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: because Brian, if it does, they're going to end up
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: using this same sort of a system at some of
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: their other international airports around the world. So it's gonna
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: be interesting to see. And I've rarely seen anyone do that.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: I was going to ask, with your permission, to pivot
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: from this story to another one that we had.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: The one who says eighteen thousand flights have been canceled.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: No, I was going to actually go to a hero
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: on a flight. There was a Jet two flight. This
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: is a flight from Turkey to England that was delayed
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: for more than an hour. Once it was airborne, one
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: of the passengers decided to drink some alcohol she brought
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: on board the flight definitely against the rules. She was confronted.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: She starts making a just a ruck as she starts screaming,
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: the crew preparing for an emergency landing so they can
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: offload this problem. And that's when a fellow passenger came
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: to the rescue, actually came over started talking to the
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: woman in a very calm voice. Brian. She actually calmed
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: down and the flight was able to continue without an
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: unscheduled stop. Now needless to save this passenger was the
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: plane's hero. But he was also eight years old, so wow,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: what a great story. His name is Phoenix, which I
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: think is a cool aviation name, and he and his
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: father once they finally got home, they started being showered
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: with gifts from the airline, passengers and people around the
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: world that have heard the story. No idea says how
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: they got our address, But my son is continuing to
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: get gifts from all over the world. But an eight
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: year old came to the rescue.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: That is amazing. Maybe we need more eight year olds
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: out of the world to de escalate these crazy people
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: we deal with day and day.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, don't be a Karen, be a Phoenix. I think
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: that's a very good thought of the day.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Need a T shirt for that with that aud it.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: And just speaking of Chicago, I saw United Airlines is
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: cutting a lot of flights. Is eighteen thousand is this
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: from Chicago?
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Hair only only eighteen thy two hundred to be exact,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: And Brian, when you see they're cutting that from their
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: schedule in June, July, and August, that's when you're adding flights.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: That's when you're adding service. That's when nobody goes on
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: vacation because the demand is high, the profit is high,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: the fares are high. You want as many of those
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: silver revenue tubes rolling as you can get. And for
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: them to come in and say, we're going to have
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: to because of the cost of fuel that's increased and
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: the challenge is associated with that, we've got to cut
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: eighteen two hundred flights. We're seeing airlines around the world
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: do this and the last thing they want to do
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: is do this in the summer. But you have some
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: markets that you operate that the profit is minimal, but
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: it's still a profit. But when you are starting to
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: pay fifty sixty to seventy percent more in fuel, that
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: minor profit now becomes a loss. And some airlines are saying,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to run this route. I'm going to
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: take that airplane to another route where our profit or
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: yield for passengers higher and do that. So they've been
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: moving things all over the place, trying to adjust on
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: the fly as they can. And yeah, it's not impacting
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: the United Chicago, but Delta's canceling flights. We're seeing Americans
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: do the same Southwest. Even the low cost carriers are
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: doing what they can to adjust as they need to
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: because again, they don't have many of these in the
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: United States, don't have hedge contracts where you've locked in
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: the price of fuel for an extended period of time. Now,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: this practice of hedging is used to be something here
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: that airlines did all the time until we rolled into
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: the pandemic and then it just burned too many carriers
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: and they never did it again. Hedging is fuel hedging
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: is popular still in Europe. A lot of the low
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: cost carriers there do it, and they are really benefiting
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: right now from the idea of being locked in for
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: some time at a predetermined price of fuel that was
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: no negotiated before all this happened. And yeah, they're able
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: to weather this storm much much easier and making money
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: along the way.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: By cutting eighteen thousand flights on just as several months.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: One airline that certainly speaks volumes about the volume of
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: flights in and out of Chicago, though, doesn't it.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Well yeah, well, well American in United had I think
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: eighty percent of the flights between them. But you know,
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: you're talking about eighteen thousand flights. You're talking three million seats.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: So when you're talking about revenue from three million seats,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: it adds up, and it's going to impact the United's
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: bottom line for sure. It's gonna impact every airline's bottom
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: line obviously. And I tell you this is not a
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: summer thing. We're seeing this even if things started resuming,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: it's you know, it's gonna take a while to get
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: that flow going where the fuel can start to drop
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: and cost for aviation needs. And this could be a
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: you know, summer, fall, even winter thing. So it's gonna
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: be interesting to see where it goes.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Well, real briefly, since we're at a time of the segment.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: You being the trader guy that you are a daytrade
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: fund dot com, I know you don't trade in long
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: term stocks, but has this already impacted the airline stock prices. This.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we've seen some overreactions in some things, and obviously
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: certain people becoming a little bit more concerned. Most people
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: are looking at it as a temporary problem. So if
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: you're buying shares of whatever airline you're keep, you're continuing
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: to do that. You're just doing it at lower prices
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: in some regards. But look, the bottom line is they're
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: not most most people in the world, including Wall Street,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: because yesterday, you know, we hit fifty thousand on the Dow.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: It was. It's not looked at something that's going to
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: be a forever type problem. And let's things escalate and
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: as things continue, hopefully to calm down in that part
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: of the world, hopefully the fuel prices will start to
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: drop a bit as well. I feel for the truck drivers,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: those independent owners and operators that I mean, good Lord,
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: sixty bucks a gallon or whatever.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and rising and rising more with I Art mediavs.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Expert Jay rattlefts some interesting story spirit as well as
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: wait a second American and merging with United? Can that happen?
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Don't go away? At you right back? Fifty five nine
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: fifty five kers the talk station Round Times with Jay
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: ratleft my heart. Media aviation expert am I reading this correctly,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: American and United might merge.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Well, it was floated out weeks ago by United CEO
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Jeff Scott Kirby, and Kirby said that yeah, he wouldn't
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: it be interesting if United, you and American got together
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: and merge, and of course set off kind of a
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: media firestorm that went everywhere. American quickly came out and said, look,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: we're not interested, no thank you, and the it was
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: pretty well a done deal where it was kind of like, Okay,
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: that's parked, but we've got the pilots for American Airlines
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: that are come out saying wait a minute, time out.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Not a bad idea that this could actually work. So
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: I've been speculating for the last couple of weeks that
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: it's easy for American Airlines to say no thank you,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: but American Airlines is not making but maybe twenty five
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: percent of the profit that United is.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: That answers the question. I literally just looked at the
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: stock price United is trading at one hundred and American
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Airlines is a thirteen dollars stock.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: You've got it, and it's there for a reason. In
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: both cases. So you've got shareholders that are like, hey,
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: I like the United price of stock a lot better
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: than here. They're doing a lot of things, right, they
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: reported quarters of profit a billion with a B dollars
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: and more, and American, you know, a couple hundred million
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: if they can make that happen. So the pilots are
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: saying it may not be a bad idea. And then
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: you've got shareholders. I guarantee you there's some internal pressure
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: now that that's been floated out there is hey, this
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: might not be a bad idea. So the more that
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: people say there's nothing to see here, a dead story,
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, right, it may come to pass. Now,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: if American and merger American in United went skipping down
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: the road in a merger attempt, what would the Trump
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: administration do? Now? Keep in mind, this is the same
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: administration that has been blasting the Biden administration for not
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: allowing Jet Blue and Spirit to merge. I'm glad that
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: merger didn't go through, by the way, because it wasn't
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: good for consumers. But the bottom line is, I think
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: of American and United went forward with this, the Trump
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: administration would allow it. I don't think it would be
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: a good idea because it would give them collectively some
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: percent of the you know, the Chicago O'Hare presidence. They
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: would own it, and you would see so few levels
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: of competition, a lot of different markets for your seats,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: higher fares. It would not be good for consumers, but
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: that's not saying it wouldn't be allowed.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Fair enough on that one. And since you mentioned Spirit,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: some love being shown by the airline folks out there
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: for the employees lost their jobs at Spirit Airlines.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: We're seeing so many stories, so many pictures. There's a
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: picture on a Frontier flight of some Spirit people that
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: were flying home. I don't know if they were crew
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: members or employees, and you see the Frontier flight attendants
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: standing around and praying over them, and it was just
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: such a I mean it. And you've got Jet Blue
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: that's coming out saying, look, if for all of the
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: Spirit passengers that are stranded, we're gonna give you a
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: ninety some dollars fare to get home. So just prove
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: to us, show us your copy of your itinerary on
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Spirit will give you these discount of tickets to get
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: you home. You've got other airlines that are set up
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: up preferential employment screening if somebody wants to apply for
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: a job. So you've got all of this stuff that's
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: happening in an industry where it's coming together, and Brian,
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: I tell you, it really warms my heart to see because
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: you know, yes, we have thousands of stranded passengers, absolutely,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: and airlines are doing what they can to assist those
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: people to in essence, airlift them out of where they're
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: at to get them home. But you also have seventeen
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: thousand current employees, many of which who already agreed to
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: take a pay cut to try to help their airlines
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: stick around. And you know, they did everything they could,
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: but you know, the clock simply ran out. They were
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: just a victim of a lot of unfirfortunate circumstances. I
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: think you remember you and I talking that they had
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: twenty percent of their fleet spirit did before the pandemic
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: that was parked. They couldn't use it because they had
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Pratt and Whitney engines that had problems, and Pratt and
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Whitney couldn't figure it out, so they could not use
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: twenty percent of their fleet. Pandemic hits. Obviously, all the
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: wheels come off of everything there we come out of it.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: The demand for travel is a little bit sluggish. Everybody
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: gets up and rolling full steams to an extent, and
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: then we have this fuel situation hit. So it's been
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: one bad thing after another, which is why Spirit had
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: to file bankruptcy twice in seventeen months. But you know,
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: as a community, people are coming together and I'm really
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: glad to see it.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, you look at that whole COVID thing
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: with a twenty twenty perspective, you think, Wow, how much
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: industry and business was destroyed as a consequence of our
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: overreaction and COVID. Wouldn't we be able to do it
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: over again? How much different it would be?
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: You really, you think so?
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, I want to say I would love to think,
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Rah if anything, that trip taught me that this group
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: would do the exact same thing. I mean, people would
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: just shut down and look for somebody to take care
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: of them.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I know. That's the frightening reality of the world these days.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, the government's going away? What anyhow? Jay
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: rattl If you always end on hub delays, what's going
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: on with air travel out there right now?
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: Head morning issues Charlotte in Atlanta. Bad news, good news
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: that weather's getting out of the way. And yesterday was
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: a mess, but this isn't yesterday. Today it looks pretty good.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Uh and Lanta and Charlotte could still see some minor
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: delayed dimper maybe a few. All in all, it should
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: be a pretty good day to fly today, and hopefully
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: the conditions will only improve as the day progresses.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Jay Ratlife will be looking patiently waiting for your report
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: about how much money you made while we were talking
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: this morning, Jay Ratliffe, I love only.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Three hundred dollars. It was a it was a slow
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: I got to pay attention to us, not you know,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: not the other stuff going on there.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Enough, Hey, you made more money. It's twenty five minutes
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: than must people make working a full day or a week,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Jay Ratliff, we'll talk next Thursday. Best of health and
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: loved you and your better half, my friend eight fifty
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: five right now