Well, I am sorry that you are worn down, Hawk . . . . and have lost sight of many important facts about Baltia. Let's see if I can refresh your memory.
Baltia was NEVER to be "some tiny airline looking to fly from NY to St Pete" . . . but rather, it is designed to be an efficient carrier, servicing the needs of North Americans and the major cities of Eastern Europe. If your view of what Baltia is becoming is limited to what you state, your assumptions are lacking awareness of Baltia's plan all along . . . . yet, I think know that.
You state Baltia's plan is to be done at "sometime in the very, very, very distant future" . . . again, this is NOT the plan, nor is it the foundation that is being built at Baltia now. Baltia is planning multiple aircraft with multiple destinations within the first year.
Your perception of the traffic between that region and North America does not give enough weight to what government mandated reports from existing airlines tells us - that about a million people a year suffer through one-or-more stops just getting to North America - and that Baltia could fill its 747 100% full daily, and only be taking 12% of that market - with the only non-stop service between the major points we are talking about. Now how many of those people traveling are possibly receiving one cent or more of government funding for their travel - whether it is military, cultural, academic, scientific, medical, etc etc ? If a traveler gets ANY money from taxpayers in this country, they must first attempt to fly on a U.S. airline, according to the Fly USA Act of Congress.
Baltia is not a traditional operating company . . . . they are a growth company at this time, and the sizzle that will be created during the build-up to certification and inaugural flights, will drive the share price, not expected earnings. You are correct, that once Baltia is flying, their earnings will drive share value... I am not worried about that, either, as I am told that their projections (and I saw the Net Operating Income Projects) are for $100 million revenue in the first year from the St. Petersburg flights alone (and profitable at only 64% load factors - which should EASILY be reached, with exclusive non-stop service). . . . and their potential after a couple of years is five times that, or more.
You are perceptive in part of your analysis . . . . that excitement is difficult to maintain, and to you it seems that we are in the doldrums. However, when you say, the outward efforts these recent days "has fallen on deaf ears", I disagree, as yours are not the only ears. The real impact of efforts to both dilute negative bashing and raise public awareness of positive events as they unfold, is worth every effort . . . . . absent it, we are letting others who might be trying to hurt us, affect us.
So, please temper your brief statements like, "nobody cares right now about some tiny airline that has been working 23 years to fly one route," because that diminishes both what is planned and what is expected.
The regulators have recently stated that Baltia's Schedule of Events is the most realistic that they have ever seen . . . . other airlines have come in and expected things to happen much more quickly than the regulators know is possible . . . . but, not with Baltia - and they are very supportive of Baltia's efforts . . . . as witnessed by the fact that they currently have 14 people working on Baltia's manual system approval, that are not even on the certification team - they are as committed as I have ever seen in my 35+ years in airline operations and management experience.
