Diadem wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 7:47 am
tbaylx wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 6:39 am
ONEX buys companies, fixes them up and sells them for a profit. Westjet has been trying to be everything to everybody. If i was a betting man I'd say ONEX takes Westjet back to it's core profitability model and sells off the extras like Swoop, Encore, 767's etc. Going to be an interesting next few years.
So they're going to abandon their highly-profitable Hawaiian routes out of everywhere but Vancouver, and lose all the connecting passengers Encore moves onto the jets, just to return to an outdated business model that was created when Canadian Airlines still existed?
tbaylx doesn't have the best track record with these kinds of predictions, and he has a vested interest in Swoop being shut down to protect his own job. Take his statements with a grain of salt.
I think tbaylx may be on to something. Onex is a scum company, tbaylx has a better track record then they do. I wouldnt be PMLing it to AC faster but Id be cautious. I dont think the core roots of WS are "outdated", Southwest, Frontier, Spirit, Ryanair, Easyjet all seem to be doing fine and never needed to add used, end of life Qantas 767s to their fleets.
Red1 wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 7:59 am
I would take the opposite view. Onex is well funded company and according to BNN has grown most of their companies with a long term vision of making them more profitable.
Theyre well funded because they break up and sell companies. $$$ for them. There is major profit in reorganizing companies that fail, and this is what Onexs' bread and butter is.
cloak wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 8:01 am
I believe great opportunity beckons at WestJet!
Onex is a solid investment firm with lots of experience and cash to develop all segments of WestJet to its full potential of a world class airline, and develop the partnership with Delta. Onex has been interested in managing a major Canadian airline which was blocked by Air Canada; and now it has an opportunity to demonstrate that vision and know-how in direct competition with it. WestJet will provide for a much better platform to execute that vision for many reasons. It is smaller and has far less labour issues, it is at the beginning of its real international growth, it has solid presence in the leisure market and it knows how to make a profit. And Onex has even more investment experience now. This can be a mutually beneficial highly profitable marriage.
As soon as you said "vision" you lost credibility as you sound like Onex management. Onex is not going to take WS international and add a pile of new planes and give every employee a hand job. Theyre going to make the airline profitable in different ways, not expansion, not turn it in to a world class airline, but reorganization and shrinkage and divesting. Aka cut the fat. This is how Onex functions, and how they have functioned. There is good reason for them to take the company private, so they can do what they want.
That doof double G Gregg is responsible for putting this airline in a position where its attractive to a firm that makes money by fixing broken and struggling companies.
Bottom line is, this company is not one I would trust. All you have to do is look back twenty years ago with the AC/CP merger, and how Onex wanted to come in and do their thing with AMR pulling the strings. I dont want to say its now doom and gloom at WestJet, but when corporate communication starts using words like "efficient" "streamlined" "do more with less" "tighten up" "vision" and "lean" then it may be time to start shoving out resumes.
I bet sell off of Encore with a CPA, sell off of vacations, spin off a MRO company, sell off Swoop or remerge it back in to mainline, sell rewards program, contract out call centres.
Here is a wild thought with no factual basis or probability, Onex buys WS and TS, merges them.