After reporting positive fourth-quarter earnings results on Monday, United Airlines (UAL) warned investors on its first-quarter 2024 outlook due to its fleet of Boeing (BA) 737 Max 9 jets being grounded for inspections.

Boyd Group International President Mike Boyd sat down with Yahoo Finance to discuss what these Boeing headwinds may mean for other airline operators — JetBlue (JBLU), Spirit Airlines (SAVE), Alaska Airlines (ALK) — and whether a manufacturer like Airbus (AIR.PA) could fill Boeing's role for now.

"Boeing's dance card is filled until 2030... this is why we saw JetBlue trying to buy Spirit — they wanted the airplanes, they didn't want the routes," Boyd explains.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

- Does Airbus have the capacity to pick up the slack if indeed these Boeing orders get canceled?

MIKE BOYD: Not a chance. Boeing's dance card is filled until 2030. I mean, this is why we saw JetBlue trying to buy Spirit. They wanted the airplanes. They didn't want the routes, they want the airplanes. There are none available. So Airbus can't pick it up, that's the end of the game.

- And Mike, the other big news for the industry, obviously we're talking a lot about is this federal judge blocking JetBlue from merging with Spirit. Is that, how does that impact the big US airlines, Mike? Is that, is that actually good news, good news, no big rival to really threaten their dominance?

MIKE BOYD: Well, it really wasn't a merger where two root systems are being taken over. It really was an asset buy as I just said. JetBlue wanted the airplanes and the crews to use to expand. My take on it, it would have improved competition in America. Because JetBlue is an impulse carrier. People see a low fare they go to Florida. Spirit is an impulse carrier. JetBlue is a mainline carrier that could have competed a whole lot better with those immediate 200 airplanes with United, Southwest, and Delta, and American.

- And Mike, I'll get you out of here on this. So we've heard from United at least initial reaction here in the after hours, investors seem to like what they heard. We've got other airlines though on deck, Mike, American, Alaska, JetBlue. Do you expect generally good results from those?

MIKE BOYD: No. I mean, at least the going forward picture for Alaska, they're being pilloried by this. Almost one third of their fleet is now grounded not flying. That means about 30%, 35% of their seats aren't being sold. And JetBlue is having issues too. Look, we do have problems at the periphery. And what we see here is, it's not going to be a 5% growth as we thought it was going to be, we think more like three in this year.

And they're adjusting to it. So I don't see good news happening only because of the Boeing thing at Alaska, and JetBlue has to restructure now because they're not going to get those expansion airplanes they could have gotten and improved competition in America with that merger.