Thebadcat1313
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2005
- Posts
- 289
That statement is absolute conjecture and assumes that AA would've had to react exactly the same way it did if AMR hadn't purchased twa. The billions in twa debt (not to mention the millions in DIP financing) and the useless STL hub caused a very substantial drain on the AA bottom line, thus forcing drastic measures. My conjectural statement is this: Had Carty not lept into this ill-advised venture, AA would've been in better financial shape and thus able to weather the post-9/11 downturn with much a much smaller percentage of shrinkage. The purchase of twa was the most monumentally unfortunate event in the 75 history of American Airlines...
Key word here being "post 9/11 downturn". Prior to 9/11, the TWA acquisition was hailed by most of the analysts as a brilliant move. Nobody doubts that AA would not have done the transaction post 9/11. Problem is, it's so dang hard to predict these things. The "substantial drain" on AA's bottom line came in large part due to the lopsided "integration" of the TWA pilots/flight attendants. AA simply could not draw down the fleet as neccessary after 9/11 because the two companies were on separate certificates and the number of furloughs required would have resulted in parking the TWA fleet. This was not an option. Had the groups been integrated in a manner consistent with, say, ALPA merger policy, the furloughs would have been deeper, sooner. This would have saved AA billions and put it on track to a quicker recovery.
With that being said, AA retains about 100 TWA airplanes and the 4% market share we brought to the table. There are only around 450 TWA pilots (out of 2350) and zero flight attendants left on the property. It's hard to quantify just how much of the current AA route structure is due to the TWA acquisition but, percentagewise, it's a lot more than that represented by the pilots and other employees that remain there.