RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:" Geektome " the basher appears again..lolGreat read so far, Greek. Kind of wish I seen all of this back in February, as it would have saved me a lot of time digging that all up
I see a market that Canada Jetlines can still capitalize off of, and the research I've done has been able to identify that it is a growing segment - the baby boomers are retiring, and they will represent a significant portion of this modern market. My father is a perfect example - former factory worker, has been retired for 10 years now - has developed a taste for travel. He has back and knee issues, and my mother gets bothered by noise. They both prefer the A320s to 737s, and have gone as far as paying premiums to get flights with A320s, as they tend to be quieter and more comfortable.
In addition to my folks, who only represent a small percentage of retirees, their friends across southwest Ontario - still haven't seen enough advantage in Swoop to prevent them from crossing the border for a large number of their trips - even on some of the direct routes served by Swoop.
I believe that Jetlines also made a good decision regarding the ownership model on the A320s they're getting - by leasing them. This reduces their capital expenditure for launch, and also eliminates the cost of depreciation. I'm not sure how plane leasing works exactly, but it may also shift the costs of overhauling and major repairs to the company handling the lease - which would remove the need for large maintenence crews (this is a speculation, and I could be completely wrong on it, but that wasn't the stone that tipped the scales for me either).
Ownership of the planes might make sense a couple years down the road, if they compete successfully and capture the market I suspect they will, but it would be crushing as a startup.
Again, great read so far - you're circling a lot of the early concerns I had too.