Redstate

have gone up.

The airlines gotta eat, too, you know!

fill up with all that cheap Alaskan gas....how long in a Beaver AChance?

" Got to love the Lord for making things like that."
Morally Compromised

We have Alaskan oil shipped to the Peoples' Republic of Washington and refined there then shipped back here on a nice monopoly Jones Act, union tug and barge. Paid $4.07 for mid-grade for the car day before yesterday and $4.24 for unleaded regular at the marina for the boat yesterday. Airplanes aren't one of my afflictions but I make up for it with the boat.

Ain't gonna do the 60D ST calc, but since a Beaver is only good for a little over a 100 mph, it'd be one Helluva long trip. It's 909 sm to SEA, so there's an easy ten hours just in flight time and you'd have to refuel a time or two.

We are working on the price of that domestic use gas and oil though. Maybe sell ourselves some of the in kind royalty oil at a price pegged on, say, the '03 average.

In Vino Veritas

One little thing they never mentioned in those want ads for fishing boat crews.

lesterblog.blogspot.com

except for short port calls maybe to carouse in the bars and whorehouses in Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, or Unalaska. Most of them are out of Seattle and the last thing they want to do is actually pay anything to or spend any money in Alaska.

And, yeah, it is expensive and wages have really deteriorated against the relative cost of living over the last couple of decades. In the seventies, an Alaska $10 was $100 and you didn't exist unless you had a roll of them in your pocket. The bell got rung in every bar in the State every five minutes. Can't remember the last time I heard a bell rung or saw a roll of hundreds.

If you've been here a while and settled in, you can live pretty well, but I'd hate like Hell to know I had to be young and starting out here these days.

In Vino Veritas

Wonder how many people would get behind free trade with Russia?

lesterblog.blogspot.com

Ever seen a Russian consumer product?

As to NAFTA, northwestern Canada is almost as remote and isolated from the rest of Canada as we are from the Lower 48. Until ferry fares got out of hand, the people from the YT and northern BC came here to shop. But fundamentally, trade between Canada and Alaska has just never really developed, I think mostly due to the distances and transportation difficulties; it is a long, lonely stretch of two-lane blacktop from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory to Tok, Alaska. Likewise, getting anything to or from Whitehorse from the SE Alaska entrepot involves the ferries, some serious mountain passes and more long, lonely road. It is some very large real estate.
In Vino Veritas

They can't afford to have that much fluctuation and uncertainty.

“.....women and minorities hardest hit”

______________________________________
Proud member of the Barry Goldwater wing of the party !

Southwest has aggressively hedged, and profited from their risk-taking. Even then, they only buy a portion of their fuel needs in advance.

And the other airlines don't have the financial wherewithal to be as big a player as SWA. The people that sell these contracts require pretty strong balance sheets of the people that buy them.

Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. - Frank Zappa

up and down the Left Coast, so they've both had agressive hedging programs. AS also fuels up in ANC and FAI as much as they can to take advantage of a bit of a price advantage in Alaska refined jet fuel. They literally use their planes as tankers to bring fuel into some places. But even the hedging seems to be playing out, at least for AS, because they're taking some big losses and starting to do a lot of whining.

In Vino Veritas

so they aren't paying the spot price usually, but nobody is doing much "locking in" these days. Alaska Airlines did a pretty good job of hedging for a couple of years there and kept their prices lower (relatively), but I think that option is pretty much unavailable these days.

In Vino Veritas

As noted elsewhere here, SW (that should be LUV really!) is the most comprehensive hedger, as they have an investment grade balance sheet, a rarity in the industry these days. It has worked well for them.

The other carriers can hedge, but are more constrained in their choices. The swap market is closed due to credit concerns, but they can buy options.

I never make it to these things either. I've only met five of the current Contributors in person, let alone regular readers.

"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill

You need to organize the NY meeting. But make it lunch - say at perhaps Whitehorse- the downtown dive one.

"Nec Aspera Terrent"
bene ambula et redambula
Contributor to The Minority Report

I'll be there. I'll be the guy in jeans and a biker t-shirt... hope they let me in.

You Global Warmer!

Ah, heck, EPU drives 2 sports cars (Prelude, Supra) and a 1/2 ton Silverado.

Man, I love being us!

Unfair. Unbalanced. Unmedicated. -- IMAO

" Got to love the Lord for making things like that."
Morally Compromised

F-150 :-)

Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion

costing about 60+ dollars to fill her up...but being a masochist it's all good :-)

Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion

" Got to love the Lord for making things like that."
Morally Compromised

Unfair. Unbalanced. Unmedicated. -- IMAO

familiar with a couple saloons in your area...

And, I am never opposed to taking a road trip..

" Got to love the Lord for making things like that."
Morally Compromised

I'll call the ball in the next few weeks - get Mem Day out of the way.

I know streetwise and kyle8 live in the area, some others do but I forget exactly who.

Unfair. Unbalanced. Unmedicated. -- IMAO

(at my age, I concentrate more on breathing than partying. Priorities, priorities!)

Well, I'm not Mr Partyhead either. Actually, I'm thinking not so much bar as maybe my pool hall in Euless (Pockets) which also is a sit-down restaurant. Or if I can get my house in order, maybe just grill burgers and stuff at my house.

Unfair. Unbalanced. Unmedicated. -- IMAO

Know what you mean about the house stuff. If the city fathers were to enter mine, it could be condemned. :>)

But when Barnett Shale comes in, we'll have maids and limos and chase cuties like JR Ewing!

...my house. Plenty of room, the friendliest puppy ever, and Hill Country Views! (that last one was apparently very important to my realtor, so I figured I'd include it ;-)

We'll see what the future holds then for all us TX folk.

Unfair. Unbalanced. Unmedicated. -- IMAO

I've been meaning to visit two old friends of mine on staff there.

lesterblog.blogspot.com

absentee
Also Find Me Here.

Not just because I get tired of giving away $3-4 for every drink but also because I always start thinking about things I could be doing at home, particularly online.

lesterblog.blogspot.com

absentee
Also Find Me Here.