The reason they've been in bankruptcy for three years is because they couldn't get creditors on board, I think they're going to come out when they say they are this time.
Latin America is becoming more deregulated, but there still is not a lot of competition in a lot of markets and there is no Southwest competition.
I expect more of the network airlines to do the same. Now that fuel is an issue, and other economics of the airline industry are pretty difficult, a lot of marginal flights are hard to justify. It's a prudent trimming of marginal routes.
Overall, I think they'll be OK, given that the economy is improving and fuel prices are starting to moderate. But nobody knows which way fuel will go, and to base your long-range planning on an optimistic view of oil prices, I think, is very risky.
What it does is replace higher-salaried employees with new people at the bottom of the pay scale. It gets the average pay down.
There's always a trade-off. You save money when you don't buy new aircraft, but then you spend a lot more time and money on maintenance as they get older.
They do it because they can make a lot of money. They're able to cut deals that move them to the front of the line when it's time to be paid.
They are taking out some flights where they already have other flights anyway.
