You can think they’re inept all you like but the shareholders don’t and neither does the market and that’s all that matters.
Airlines are specialised. Analysts most certainly are not! Analysts were pretty keen on Enron, Lehmans, World Com, Lyondell and closer to home Bond Corp, Qintex etc etc etc as well - right up until the time they weren't.
I met a banker a couple of years ago who was very boastful about his relationship with 'Alan'. Having no idea who I was or what I (really) did I let him feed me the lines from the Great Man. I inherently do not trust bankers to understand much at all really, but all I could think of afterwards was that the lenders had ZERO idea about what Qf was doing and wasting money on. The penny will drop - make no mistake, it always does. The only reason it's lasted as long as it has is that Qf is a near monopoly. It's pretty hard to stuff up a near monopoly, but they sure are giving it a red hot go! I mean come on, $1.7b of borrowed cash, essentially to guarantee their own bonuses? That's straight out of the Enron copybook!
The first 35 seconds is enough:
They're analysts, they don't know preferred stock from livestock!