Inevitability....

Polar742

Polar742

All the responsibility none of the authority
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3:1 - LCC/UAL/CAL

10:1 - LCC/CAL

50:1 - LCC/UAL

100:1 - Bedford buys the whole shebang

US Airways looks for merger

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24-Feb-2010
DEREK Kerr, US Airways’ chief financial officer has announced that the carrier is looking to merge with another US airline. It has yet to approach any other carrier as Kerr says, “it takes two to tango”.


According to Kerr, there are too many competing airlines for the US domestic market and consolidation is necessary to reduce capacity. This would therefore, he added, rule out merging with a foreign carrier, as that would not cut capacity.


“I don’t think that will make a difference,” he said. “Domestic is where there is too much fragmentation and there are too many airlines. It’s five major carriers; it’s too fragmented. We believe that it needs to be consolidated. Consolidation is one of the major ways this industry can become profitable.”


US Airways is the US’ fifth-largest airline, so when Kerr was asked why it was not approaching any other carrier, Kerr said: “It’s difficult for the number five player to make a move on numbers one through four.” The four being American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta and United Airlines.


Earlier in the week, United Airlines’ chief financial officer, Kathryn Mikells, also said that it was considering a merger.


US Airways tried to negotiate a merger with United in 2008, but this stalled when United went after an alliance with Continental instead.
United Airlines and US Airways are both part of Star Alliance, a global network of carriers that allows them to streamline costs while sharing revenue.
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US Airways wants to merge?

Has the Airways/AWA merger even been completed yet, insofar as operating certificates / seniority lists?
 
MikeD said:
US Airways wants to merge?

Has the Airways/AWA merger even been completed yet, insofar as operating certificates / seniority lists?
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One certificate, which is why the callsign is Cactus and the flight numbers have the AWE code now. Dunno about the seniority lists.
 
MikeD said:
US Airways wants to merge?

Has the Airways/AWA merger even been completed yet, insofar as operating certificates / seniority lists?
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A merger is the only way Parker can keep bringing costs down. He sure can't do it by management skills so his solution is keep the dust cloud up and investor money pouring in during a merger. That and being able to cut capacity SHOULD bring up revenue.

The merger is done with the exception of the seniority lists. They've been single certificate for about a year. Bringing in a third pilot group would probably tip the balance back towards ALPA which would be kind of interesting.

This really isn't anything new though. Airways has been beating the merger drum for a few years now. It's just that the credit markets have been frozen up and there was no real way to do it.
 
JordanD said:
Seems like it'd be kinda difficult since the fleets are so different.

Hope I still have a job if any of this actually happens...
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I would think it would be a long time before an integration between the pilots and aircraft would happen. Plus UAL still has a lot of folks on furlough. I just think CAL has their crap together a little more than UAL. United might be too big of a mess to clean up in a merger. Another con against UAL is the age of their airplanes.
 
Great so after this happens all the guys will be screaming you stole my job, will we ever learn.

Ozark & TWA
TWA & AA
US Air & AWA
NWA & DAL
Republic & F9, Midwest
USAirways & ??????

put them all in a pot, shake it a little and watch the "CULTURE OF HATE"
evolve.
 
BobDDuck said:
The merger is done with the exception of the seniority lists. They've been single certificate for about a year. Bringing in a third pilot group would probably tip the balance back towards ALPA which would be kind of interesting.

.
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So that means that you can see mixed crews now, and guys can fly planes from the "other" airline that they previously weren't allowed to?
 
MikeD said:
So that means that you can see mixed crews now, and guys can fly planes from the "other" airline that they previously weren't allowed to?
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No. Because the seniority lists haven't been merged, you can't have east/west crews. The flight attendants *may* be at that point but I don't think so. Also, I don't think east crews can fly former west airplanes or the other way around.
 
BobDDuck said:
No. Because the seniority lists haven't been merged, you can't have east/west crews. The flight attendants *may* be at that point but I don't think so. Also, I don't think east crews can fly former west airplanes or the other way around.
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That's what I remember an AWA guy who was on mil leave telling me about a year ago about the situation, that they weren't flying mixed crews, and he could only fly 757s that were AWA planes, not ones that were Airway's planes. I was wondering if the single-certificate thing made that possible, or if the seniority list merger is the one thats only able to make that happen.

Is that close to coming to fruition?

And back to my original thought........why would US Airways want to merger when their first one isn't even complete?
 
MikeD said:
Is that close to coming to fruition?

And back to my original thought........why would US Airways want to merger when their first one isn't even complete?
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Close to fruition? Eh, it should be completed but it seems as if the East will try their hardest to drag it out as long as possible. I go both ways on this and it is very difficult to not take the east pilots side. Having had a great deal in a jumpseat with 20 years plus of service at USairways and not being able to hold a CA slot is crazy. Then you hear some guys on our company Crewnews complaining about things on the West side whom are 10 year Captains..... I would be shocked to see anything come to fruition in the next 2 years.... But stranger things have happen....

As to a merger, I do not think US Airways cares about the list being complete. They are looking to make the company profitable and thus reducing the number of seats in the market on routes that bring prices so low they do not cover the cost of flights... Unfortunately places like SWA/Jetblue/Airtran and others continue to throw their fare wars and thus hurt the ability to do so. It appears Parkers mindset, along with Tilton, is that to return the industry to a profitable industry in tough times you must reduce the total seats on various routes..... It makes sense, and thus why Parker has pushed hard for it. He also says from the investor point of view, they do not care about the seniority being merged, rather if the airline is running smooth and being positioned for the best possible outcome.....

Now how the pilot integration would go with a UAL/CAL/AA who knows.... :) HOPEFULLY they would learn from DAL/NWA and ALPA could take care of the other factors that might come up.... But who knows.... I just wonder which is most likely to happen UAL/LCC, UAL/CAL, LCC/AA etc..... Keeping in mind it seems like LCC/UAL were only minutes away from striking such a deal back in 2008.....
 
I'm not sure Why US thinks anyone wants to dance with them. I don't think they bring enough synergies to the table besdies DCA, the shuttle and to some extent CLT.
 
Gah. I still (largely unsuccessfully) try to avoid flying USAir because of the total mess they made of the merger from the customer side. While things seem to have finally smoothed out a little on the booking and check-in sides, my bad luck with their flights never, ever being on-time (and often requiring rebooking/unplanned overnights) hasn't abated. I dread looking at the itinerary the company coordinator has put together and seeing US on there.

Maybe my experience is uniquely terrible, but I don't see why anyone would want to step up and merge with that mess, and that's without even getting into their lack of synergies (buzzword bingo, woo!) and bizarre labor situation.
 
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