FLYi (NASDAQ:FLYI) hasn't been able to find any clean air to fly through over the past few weeks. It has seen more ups and downs than a bad batch of turbulence from Dulles to Orlando. Let me walk you through it.
September 15: Down
FLYi reports its load factor for Independence Air hits a low of 46%. Flying around half-empty planes doesn't seem like a good business model.
October 4: Up
Independence Air reports it served its 1,000,000th customer.
October 19: Down, and the "Fasten Your Seat Belt" light illuminates
Shares plummet 28% because of bankruptcy concerns raised by an analyst at UBS Securities.
October 20: Down with oxygen masks deploying
The rate of descent increases as shares fall another 33% over the same bankruptcy concerns.
November 4: Up, and the pilot stabilizes the plane
Load factors rise to 55%. Phew! FLYi also reports it will revise its current sales policy to allow travel agencies to book flights. That's it; keep filling those seats!
November 10: We're going down again
Shares drop 32% to $1.30 after the company says that bankruptcy is indeed possible if it cannot negotiate enough liquidity to make its $83 million lease payments. The company learns that debt has a way of constraining things.
November 11: Up, but for how long?
Merrill Lynch upgrades the stock from Sell to Neutral on the notion that the current price fully discounts the risk of bankruptcy. Also, the analyst reports that United Air Lines (OTC BB: UALAQ) has asked FLYi to bid for some of Air Wisconsin's regional flights. The report also states that the shares should be considered only for aggressive accounts. I think I might be an "aggressive" account if my shares had lost more than 50% of their value in the last eight weeks.
The interesting thing to note is that before becoming independent, FLYi was a regional carrier for United and Delta (NYSE:DAL) under the name Atlantic Coast Airlines. Looks like FLYi is going back to square one with turbulence still looming in the distance.
Fool contributor David Meier is a little motion-sick from looking at FLYi's chart. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.
