Founder & Managing Director, AIR Control Tower, AIR Control Tower

Neil Glynn

Neil Glynn, FCA, CFA, is Founder and Managing Director of AIR Control Tower.

Neil has near to 20 years of aviation experience, based in Dublin and London, including the roles of Credit Officer at CIT Aerospace and head of global transport equity research at Credit Suisse. 

The quality of Neil’s industry-leading research and forecasting across the value chain is long-recognized by investors (long track record of top tier placing in Institutional investor European Transport analyst survey; ranked #3 in last survey in 2021) and corporates (regular management team/board workshops, conference presentations around the world). 

Neil has also led 10 initial public offering (IPO) processes, assessing the investment case of corporates seeking to attract new investors.

Founder & Managing Director, AIR Control Tower

Spirit Airlines Needs to Address Labor Cost-Pricing Mismatch with or Without Chapter 11

JetBlue - Profitability Distant but Scope for Recovery Prospects to Become Clearer Through 2024

Frontier Airlines - 2024 Momentum Buys Time to Deliver on 2025 Targets

US Airlines - Second Tier Strives for Financial Sustainability

AIR Control Tower

AIR Control Tower is an independent research and analysis platform. Its mission is to provide impactful insight and analysis across the global airline industry at a company and market level via detailed financial models to aid decision making for key stake holders at a time when risks have seldom, if ever, been higher and the global sector grapples with the imperative of funding de-carbonisation. Unique analysis forecasting global carrier-level earnings/cash flows, and restructuring/de-leveraging prospects, is designed to dynamically assess the health of the industry, predict surprises and identify potential requirements for third party support.

Insights on the global airline industry

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>Spirit Airlines finished 2023 as expected and highlights improving pricing momentum in early 2024 which should drive some margin recovery.</li>
<li>However, we still expect EBITDAR/ASM to finish 2024 down 72% on 2019, with a maximum 50% deficit required to avoid escalating debt. This drives a focus on Chapter 11 risk.</li>
<li>Management is adamant liquidity is sufficient to allow it to recover but significant margin gains, led by pricing expansion despite aggressive growth plans, are required for financial sustainability.</li>
</ul>


Spirit Airlines finished 2023 as expected and highlights improving pricing momentum in early 2024 which should drive some margin recovery.
However, we still expect EBITDAR/ASM to finish 2024 down 72% on 2019, with a maximum 50% deficit required to avoid escalating debt. This drives a focus on Chapter 11 risk.
Management is adamant liquidity is sufficient to allow it to recover but significant margin gains, led by pricing expansion despite aggressive growth plans, are required for financial sustainability.


Spirit Airlines - Summer 2024 a Critical Test of Organic Recovery Prospects