Anyone want to chip in and purchase an Airbus?

US Airways, I'm afraid, is circling the drain. It started the day the United merger was announced, and has been an uninterrupted downfall ever since. This airline was near and dear to me since childhood. Growing up in Rochester, NY, they were by FAR the largest airline in town. As a kid, they flew nonstop mainline jets (this was before anybody knew what an RJ was, unless you count the F-28) to a bunch of cities ... Syracuse, Boston, LaGuardia, Newark, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Baltimore, Washington Reagan, Charlotte, Toronto, and even (for a time) Orlando. I flew them all the time to visit my mother in Charlotte. I have family in Pittsburgh and USAir (as it was back in the day) was numero uno there, of course. So, it's sad in a way to see them go. However, it is not at all unexpected.

Want to know something funny? I was going through some of my files from Riddle recently. I wrote a research paper in 1996 about how USAir could save itself from financial ruin. Eight years later, its amazing how not much has changed.

As to the assets, a hidden jewel could be the hub at CLT. It is the only airport with the facilities (runways, terminal, etc.) to be able to compete with ATL in the southeast. People like to call it a "small market", but they forget ... it is an enormous banking center, second only to New York as a hub for banking in the US. Two of the ten largest banks in the country are headquartered in Charlotte, as are several other major companies.

As I've been saying for a while now ... these sure are interesting times we live in.

FL270
 
I too, have grown up flying with them....since i was 3 weeks old..but, how would they save themselves? most of you speak of new management restructure, how would you do that, and what would the benefits be? How would you restructure the airline better to make it have a rebound? Sorry Doug, no intentions on going off topic for our purchasing of the airbus
 
This reminds me of when Pan Am sold off their Pacific routes to United and their Atlantic routes to American and Delta. And we all know what happened after that.
 
USAir/ways is the only major airline I've flown on, being in NY and basically flying into Pittsburgh and spoke out to anywhere.

I hope they can survive, but it definately isn't looking likely.
 
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"Just a passenger"...Maybe you should start calling them customers and remember who pays your salary.

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You know I actually posted this once before but I deleted it thinking I might have misread your intentions or whatnot. Then I read one of your last posts in the Ameriflight thread ...

This is an awfully strange sentiment coming from someone who is willing to sell out his fellow pilots and the profession he wants to be a part of just to get a couple hundred hours in a "turbine."

But, then, I guess I'm just one of the "many of the kids posting."
 
The root of the problem, as Tony pointed out, is the fact that managment is looking at the problem the wrong way. USairways has a fairly good shot at restructuring and surviving, although it will most likely not be in the form that we are used to. Right now they are trying to get rid of their most valuable assets (the shuttle, gates at LGA etc...) These are really the ONLY things that make them money. What they need to do (and it has been suggested to them by several consultants) is to sell off everything BUT the shuttle and a few high profit routes. Of course USAir would look nothing like it does now and a very large percentage of their work force would loose their jobs. But if they were to do this, and refocus on their core objective (the North East business market) I think they would have a good chance of success and may eventually be able to build back up to a level near what they are now. Just my .02. I am flying on them next week so I hope they last that long
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Ethan
 
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USAir/ways is the only major airline I've flown on . . .

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You've been sooo deprived!!! They're just so boring!!!
 
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Anyone want to chip in and purchase an Airbus?

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NO WAY!!!! Don't you know, Doug?? Airbus SUCK!!! (Ask any NUMBER of wannabe's who have never flown one or been offered a job flying one. It HAS to be true!!)
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<ducks, runs for cover>
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Now, come on....anyone who has flown XYZ-Plane 2004 knows that the A320 flies wonderfully!!! You don't even have to manage systems in that thing!!!
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Yeah, and there isn't as much "shacking" on the A320 as on the 737. Don't you know, it's just simple "fisics!"
 
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Because the US Airways family is taking exactly the WRONG track to get out of touble. You've got some very desireable assets, such as gates at DCA, which will never be expanded; the shuttle, and so on. And you want to sell those?

Stupid. These are the assets that MAKE YOU MONEY! And you want to sell it.

I think the airline is on the way out the door. Like I said, if UAL had some money right now, they'd get their merger after all.

Edited to add that I don't mean you are stupid, Mongoose. I mean that the management of US Airways is.

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If all y'all are such airline management prodigies why don't you start up your own airlines or similarly complex companies?

If you take the entire financial history of the airline industry in America it hasn't earned a single penny of net profit [zero-sum game]. You could rightfully blame some of this on management ineptitude, but some of the brightest business leaders have also failed in the biz.

What makes any of us think we could do much better?

Airines are unique businesses that rely on so many things that are out of their control. The fixed costs are staggering, add labor issues, fuel costs and you've got a handfull. Go look at the profit margins of "successful" airlines. Even in good times the margins are terribly modest given the capital expenditures.

Just ask yourself one question, if you had $1b would you start up your own airilne?

BTW I'd love to see some cock-sure marketing chap take the helm of an airline formerly run by "stupid" people. Just give the kid some premium unleaded and a match and let him burn the cash. It would last longer that way. Ekonomiks right tony?
 
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If you take the entire financial history of the airline industry in America it hasn't earned a single penny of net profit.

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That's true, and that means that to run a successful airline today, one has to minimize their losses, something that USAir has not been able to do. From a strickly financial view, selling off your only profitable assets are not the way to fix this problem. However, there are probably a million other reasons why they are doing this, which we, the untrained airline monday morning QBs don't know anything about.
And this isn't even my .02. I'm saving that to give to USAir in hopes it gets them through another day
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Ethan
 
I don't know if that marketing chap dig was directed at me or not, but I can tell you one thing. I sure as hell wouldn't have said something along the lines of "we're only planning on merging, that's our business strategy" when that merger was facing some serious anti-trust scrutiny.

I'm not saying that I'd have more success than the folks who ran US Airways. After all, even Warren Buffett couldn't do much with them.

But one thing I do know is the value of is good public relations and how to get there. Comments about no business plan other than merger and plans for a "rat on your fellow employee" system don't get you there.
 
I hope they make it. I fly all of my business trips on them. I even flew my honeymoon on them when Delta was cheaper (Sorry Doug) because I really like how they treat customers. I have never had anything but a positive experience with them except for a rude flight attendant on a very very very late flight out of DCA (due to weather) and he was with Mesa anyway so I don't hold that against US Air. I guess I had better go ahead and use my miles soon.
 
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If all y'all are such airline management prodigies why don't you start up your own airlines or similarly complex companies?

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Hey, calm down partner!!! Nobody's saying that they are perfect.

What IS being said is that many of these airlines are making some stupid moves!! Have they sealed their own fates yet? No, probably not. But they are driving nail after nail, consistently. The fact of the matter, however, is that there are some businesses making profits each year, while others continue to fail.

As for myself, I don't want to contribute money to any business that seems doomed to failure - be it an airline, a grocery store or a car dealership. I want my money to go to a company that can turn a profit AND put some of that profit back into the company. When we do that, we all win!!

And that's why my favorite airline is my favorite airline. I have no hate for US Airways. In fact, I really hope that they can pull it together - for the sake of the employees. However, I'm not buying a ticket until they can show me that they're worth my dollar.
 
Yeah a brilliant PR campaign would get USAir into the black. I wish I had thought of it.

USAir is distressed. They're liquidating assets (btw assets that don't have value can't be liquidated). Maybe this seemingly irrational action has some logic behind it -maybe it doesn't. But unless you sit on the board or are privy to all their info, making a judgement and calling them stupid is presumptuous at best.

FWIW, merging is not bad end goal/strategy for any business. In fact unless you have some altruistic motives or sentimental attachmet, running a biz in a way that would make it attractive to M&A is a great plan. Thousands of millionaires can't be wrong.
 
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Thousands of millionaires can't be wrong.

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Tell that to the millions of un-employed workers that made them millionaires.

I thought the whole M&A craze was proved to be passe in the '80s. But, then, I guess greed never goes out of "style."
 
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Yeah a brilliant PR campaign would get USAir into the black. I wish I had thought of it.

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Well, from that comment, I know exactly who that pot shot about marketing chaps was directed at.

If you don't think that good PR has any value, look at the publicity about the LCCs. Think that people saying, oh, Southwest is cool doesn't have some benefit? Think that people saying, man, I love flying on JetBlue is worthless? Do you think that might just maybe gain them a few extra passengers?

And if people see US Airways selling off assets, and execs saying things that just plain don't make sense, and they think the airline is doomed, do you think that might just drive away a few passengers? If they implement a plan that encourages employees to rat on their coworkers, don't you think that might make some people take their business elsewhere?

Think it through.
 
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