US Airways discussing merger with United

[Golden Falcon]

Wondered how many of the REAL PSA guys were still hangin' out in SOCAL

 

[Andy]

IMHO, CAL would do fine on its own.

Your CEO, Kellner, disagrees. He made it clear that the landscape has changed.

 

[SuperFLUF]

Your CEO, Kellner, disagrees. He made it clear that the landscape has changed.

He has said that we can not afford to be a "second tier" carrier in Sky Team. We need to be a major player in one of the three global alliances. Make no mistake about it, the new DAL will relegate us to second tier status in Skyteam.

I would like nothing more than to see them come up with a creative way to supply the rapid expansion that CO mgmt has said we'll need in order to compete and not "end up in the ditch in 5 yrs". The easiest way is to merge in order to acquire the wide body lift and infrastucture, but its probably not the best way. Boeing's backlogs and the credit market being what it is, seems to push CAL more toward the merger route.

 

[Tejas-Jet]

How about this...

Be break up US Airways into two pieces. AWA/US Airways again. One company takes the AWA portion, the other takes the US Airways portion. Now USAPA can deal with a larger group.

Funny you should say this...

any truth to the rumor that UAL will merge with US Air East...and the West will go to Orenstein/Mesa?

Just heard that one this morning.

 

[PBRstreetgang]

No offense but, AWA was not a great airline.

It had been said more than once, "it's Trans States with big jets", but with a great pilot group too!
PBR

 

[Fly-n-hi]

Yea those bastages don't want to lose their flying, can you believe the nerve of those sons-a-bumbs.

Forntunately AWA bought US Airways so that didn't happen. If AAA had gone under they would have lost a whole buch of flying.

You're right...I can't believe the nerve of those guys. We agree to binding arbitration and when you don't like the outcome you yell "do over" like some 5th graders. Now I understand why the rest of the industry hates you so much.

I dont think you have to worry about making their lives miserable as THEY DON'T WANT YOUR DAMN FLYING. I know that doesn't follow the West party line, so you can resume your being the internet bad azzes and make all the threats you want.

That's not some idle threat. You come out here and its gonna be really unpleasant.

Doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

Sounds like you're following the retard party line.

 

[Furloughed80]

Your CEO, Kellner, disagrees. He made it clear that the landscape has changed.

I know, Kellner has been using this one line for years. However, I find it hard to believe that Continental will cease to exist in a few years because they did not participate in this current wave of consolidation. Is all the hype definitely true? Is a DAL/NWA merger absolutely guaranteed to be a success? From the outside, it seems that their seniority list integration is about to become very contentious and may cause problems for the combined entity. I believe its too simplistic to state that consolidation is the only way.

I do agree that UAL is the best fit for CAL. However, I really don't think there is a chance that the two pilot groups will be integrated amicably. It will be a huge mess that will negatively impact the company and the careers of many pilots for years to come. In my opinion, a CAL/UAL merger with oil at its current price and the economy in its current sate will lead to layoffs. This fact will make pilot integration that much more intense. Hopefully I am wrong.

 

[Andy]

I know, Kellner has been using this one line for years. However, I find it hard to believe that Continental will cease to exist in a few years because they did not participate in this current wave of consolidation. Is all the hype definitely true? Is a DAL/NWA merger absolutely guaranteed to be a success? From the outside, it seems that their seniority list integration is about to become very contentious and may cause problems for the combined entity. I believe its too simplistic to state that consolidation is the only way.

I do agree that UAL is the best fit for CAL. However, I really don't think there is a chance that the two pilot groups will be integrated amicably. It will be a huge mess that will negatively impact the company and the careers of many pilots for years to come. In my opinion, a CAL/UAL merger with oil at its current price and the economy in its current sate will lead to layoffs. This fact will make pilot integration that much more intense. Hopefully I am wrong.

Kellner sees CAL being frozen out of Skyteam. A lot of revenue is derived from codeshare bookings. AF/KLM are supposedly the ones who dumped the money into DAL/NWA to make it happen. (I was completely wrong about their merger going through - I didn't see them as being able to raise capital to make it happen. They found $1.5B somewhere and right now, all roads lead to France).
With a large stake in DAL/NWA's future, which American company do you think will receive the bulk of the codeshare flying? That's where Kellner's concerned and he is right to be concerned about it.
On the other hand, a CAL/UAL merger would likely result in the combined company being in the DeathStar Alliance. While the DeathStar already has a lot of Caribbean presence with another US partner, I suspect that a lot of those bookings would end up with the combined CAL/UAL, resulting in the second US DeathStar partner finding themselves in the same position as CAL is currently in with Skyteam.

Pilot groups will never integrate amicably. I don't know why Moak didn't simply agree to go direct to binding arbitration; that would have been the best route. NWA has a different seniority integration idea than DAL - that stuff is best left to a neutral third party. Your idea of a seniority integration with UAL is probably different than mine with CAL - again, better to go direct to binding arbitration and save some time. No need to get all worked up about it.
As far as furloughs go, I think that they're going to happen whether or not a merger takes place. There will be aircraft parked and block hour reductions. The economic environment is not improving. Oil prices are rising and although most of these costs are being passed on, bookings are going to start to fall off a cliff.

As far as mergers go, I think that Moak and Delta made a huge paradigm shift where the employees are able to benefit from a merger. I think that he really stepped on it by not agreeing to binding arbitration of the seniority lists - it would have eliminated a lot of bad feelings.
I can only hope that our MECs are learning the good and bad points of the DAL/NWA merger.

 

[iflyhigh]

Tejas-Jet:

There are so many rumors running around, I can't even keep up.

These rumors range from splitting up US Airways, to merging with AMR or UAL, or US Airways merging with some part of UAL.

I really don't know what is going on. I highly doubt the MESA issue, though did hear a rumor US Airways was going to buy MESA.

Mesa is in alot of trouble right now. So highly doubt they are buying anybody at this point.

Only time will tell.

 

[Sonny Crockett]

I think 99% of the UAL guys will BURN THE COMPANY DOWN if they try to merge with USAirways again.....


Who can still remember all the USAir bubba's asking about 747-400 study guides?

STAPLE, STAPLE, STAPLE....