US Justice Department Moves to Block US Airways/AMR Merger

Why would this effect dispatchers and the hiring thereof? The merger will happen. They'll all get together, AA/US will make some concessions and suddenly the DOJ will back off.
 
This thing ain't going away anytime soon; the TX & AZ (HQ for both US & AA) Attorneys General joining the lawsuit to block it. I have a feeling this may be redux for US/UA (remember 2000?). Once again, US was left at the altar.

In case this is just a "I'm the great Wizard of Oz" show by the your favorite United States government, most likely AA/US would have to surrender more slot pairs to a high bidder.

Now the waiting and seeing begins...
 
I cant understand why TX would block it other than getting revenge on UA for taking away CO. Understandable why AZ would be upset. However, I think this all comes down to the DC market. The fact that AA/US would have a stranglehold on DCA is what this is all about I think.
 
Funny how they are filing suit to block this merger but they allowed WN to take over FL in which the purpose of that merger was to eliminate WN's #1 direct competitor. As evident as their fire-sale of 717's to Delta

They should have never allowed the slippery slope to happen with NW/DL, CO/UA, FL/WN and now they are trying to draw the line based on a few slots in DCA and concerns for fare increases/ancillary revenue control? What the hell did they expect from allowing this mass consolidation? Idiots...

Where was this attorney general from TX when UA/CO merged?
 
I cant understand why TX would block it other than getting revenge on UA for taking away CO. Understandable why AZ would be upset. However, I think this all comes down to the DC market. The fact that AA/US would have a stranglehold on DCA is what this is all about I think.
I concur, they'll probably need to give up some slots at DCA, LGA, and maybe even LHR
 
OneBadLT123 said:
Funny how they are filing suit to block this merger but they allowed WN to take over FL in which the purpose of that merger was to eliminate WN's #1 direct competitor. As evident as their fire-sale of 717's to Delta

They should have never allowed the slippery slope to happen with NW/DL, CO/UA, FL/WN and now they are trying to draw the line based on a few slots in DCA and concerns for fare increases/ancillary revenue control? What the hell did they expect from allowing this mass consolidation? Idiots...

Where was this attorney general from TX when UA/CO merged?

Well the offloading of 717s isn't hard to figure out since WN's business model features a single fleet type.

And there wasn't much in the way of service overlap between FL and WN.
 
Why would this effect dispatchers and the hiring thereof? The merger will happen. They'll all get together, AA/US will make some concessions and suddenly the DOJ will back off.

Hopefully, but from what I'm hearing bunch of folks applied at AA and haven't heard anything for a while, now this came up and everything is in a standstill.
 
I heard one of the reason (that wasn't stated) why the DOJ blocked is because of the pilot from HP and US haven't agreed to a contract but I thought they did a few months ago. But I heard this from a HP pilot.

But also, the DOJ believes AA should come out of bankruptcy first from what I gathered by a few of the articles I read.
 
But also, the DOJ believes AA should come out of bankruptcy first from what I gathered by a few of the articles I read.

That doesn't really make sense as both DL and NW were in bankruptcy when they merged...of course, I guess that was a different administration/political climate.
 
Well the offloading of 717s isn't hard to figure out since WN's business model features a single fleet type.

And there wasn't much in the way of service overlap between FL and WN.
They fed a large BS release over the initial months while the merger was in the approval process about how the 717 was in their operation plans going forward and was not planning on removing them from the fleet. Of course that was until everything was signed on the dotted line, now they are giving them away to Delta for next to nothing on top of paying for the reconfiguration for Delta as well.

WN wanted FL out of their strong focus cities, BWI, MKE, MCO, ATL, FLL, RSW, TPA and WN's desperate and overpaid outbid over FL of ATA's gates at MDW. They wanted simply to absorb and remove their #1 direct threat to both their domestic LCC model and their now expanding Mexico/Caribbean model.

Yet, after allowing WN, DL and UA acquire over half the other mainline carriers out there, now this is all of a sudden a problem to the DOJ? I don't buy it. Somebody is in bed with somebody elseware and there is more to this...
 
Yet, after allowing WN, DL and UA acquire over half the other mainline carriers out there, now this is all of a sudden a problem to the DOJ? I don't buy it. Somebody is in bed with somebody elseware and there is more to this...

UA is easy to figure out. Look where the president is from, look where UA is now based, and look how little they had to give up to satisfy the powers that be (a few slots at EWR...NONE of the legacy CO slots were affected.) Now look at where AA/US would be based and how TX voted in the last two elections. I'm just sayin'...
 
This decision has big effects on AA dispatch. AA management agreed in 2015/DOS +36 to average out the payscales at Delta/US/UAL and make that the new AA dispatch rate. If US Airways is taken out through the merger then the average salary goes much higher with just Delta/UAL averaged out.

Hiring wont change that much at AA. AA needs to hire based on retirements. 100 or more dispatchers are ready to retire. They need to be replaced along with past retirements. AA still hasnt full replaced those that have retired already due to the long length of the dispatch training process.

There may be a need for additional hiring with US moving to DFW but so far word has been that many US Airways dispatchers are happy with the potential move to DFW. Of course some will leave US and not want to move to DFW which will create openings.
 
Yet, after allowing WN, DL and UA acquire over half the other mainline carriers out there, now this is all of a sudden a problem to the DOJ? I don't buy it. Somebody is in bed with somebody elseware and there is more to this...

I agree, it really doesn't make sense...from a few media reports, they are afraid airfares will go up. But if a stipulation was worked out that things won't change in that regard.

We honestly don't need government involved anymore they are not....I think one of the biggest jokes is the tarmac delay by the DOT. I do agree there has to be some give but weather is not controlled by anyone but from mother nature.
 
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