Chuck Y,
I know for a fact that GF have been offered four BRAND NEW A320's in the last three weeks, 1 for immediate delivery, three for Q4 2008. All straight off the production line! Zero mileage!
However, it unfortunately appears that the company cannot turn around a decision quick enough to take advantage of the offers and they either have or are about to be, snapped up by others who can make a decision within 24-72 hours!
What makes this worse is that there was a plan to return the current 320 fleet to the lessors this year and early 2009 as the leases ran out - that was ditched because they couldn't find any replacements; now they are being offered aircraft the opportunities are being lost because of the lack of decision making at the top.
I guess sometimes in business companies fail due to this sort of behaviour and inefficiency... so, where is GF heading?