Good evening everyone. This week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted.  

We are almost done with fourth quarter 2011 earnings. This week we take an in-depth look at the results reported last week by Spirit Airlines and SkyWest Airlines.

I found both calls interesting last week — but for different reasons. Spirit notched the best operating margin of any North American airline for the fourth quarter. That was no small feat. It’s ROIC as nothing to sneeze at either.

As for SkyWest, the financial carnage associated with the airline’s ExpressJet deal continued during the fourth quarter, but there might, finally, be hope for 2012, although SkyWest will report a loss for the first quarter.

By the way, which aircraft that many operators seem to think is so desirable right now in the regional space does SkyWest’s CEO Jerry Atkin think may not be that important in the regional space five years from now? His answer may surprise some.

This week Republic Holdings and Pinnacle are slated to wrap up the sector’s fourth quarter results.

We also spend a lot of time this week parsing the latest bankruptcy filings for American Airlines. In particular, this week we take a look at the airline’s recent request to the bankruptcy court for $12 million dollars. Give or take. The airline wants the money so it can pay the Boston Consulting Group. (Just one of tens of consultants and advisors the airline says it has to have working for it.)

But the request for the BCG money is especially interesting to pick through.

Do you know what “The Cascade Project” is and what it supposedly is going to do for AMR and its management team?

We give you the scoop. We also tell you when BCG first started working with the airline.

I warn you though, if you have a weak stomach for corporate speak and consultant-eze, it may be hard to get down. And keep down.

We may have to force ourselves to parse the bankruptcy filings more carefully on a more regular basis.

Then again, maybe not.

As usual, all this, and much, much more in this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.