tailhookah
Just be the ball, Danny..
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2004
- Posts
- 278
Fellas,
While I was on the thinking chair this morning I started to ponder the current environment and it started to really upset me. One in particular is the current merger attempt between Delta and NWA. The merger is just another attempt to make a bunch of money for a few while the rest of us get the torch. I'm really tired hearing words and phrases like; premier global airline; international presence; cost synergies; a more durable company that is better positioned to manage through economic cycles, invest in its fleet, and introduce innovative services for customers; diversified network footprint; create an airline with the size, scale and global presence to weather economic downturns and compete long-term in the global marketplace.
Let's break these terms down:
Premier global airline-wasn't this phrase repeatedly used by both Delta and Northwest over the last decade as they competed against each other... and by United, American, BA, Airfrance etc... I think it'll just be a premier global failure when it comes to getting your checked bags, a tiny bag of p-nuts or pretzels from a pi$$ed off employee who just gave up years of seniority due to the merger screwing them.
International presence-like either or all global airlines already don't have this?
Cost synergies-my favorite... like sharing a 10 billion write down in your 1st quarter results? Yeah real synergies happening right now. Without overlapping route networks that can be slashed, I really don't see how the DAL-NWA merger will result in much savings. The only thing it will do in greatly increase employee resentment that Dougie and Richard got theirs in the merger while the rank and file get nothing. Cost synergies will only help if you can take many existing and overlapping jobs and routes and get rid of them, which in turn will enable you to raise fares on the routes that are left over w/ less overhead. But they plan on keeping both companies intact... WTF??????
And the final bullet points.... both companies have been greatly mismanaged at the scale they are at right now. Why do people think that two mismanaged big companies will be better managed at roughly twice the size while most of the employees don't want the new company or will not want it when they figure out their quality of life will suffer? What's manageable at 5 is much harder at 10, 20, 30, 40... etc... just ask anyone who's managed people before... it's not easy and the more people you have under you it becomes an exponential issue the more you have... not linear. This new bohemuth is going to be a people department nightmare.... which in turn will be taken out directly on the customer. The only innovation for the customers will be a new and frustrating level of the lack of customer service and higher fares, resulting from a monopoly in many regions. The "scale" that's talked about will be measured in quarterly results like we've seen today... the scale of a 10 billion collective write down between the two compnies and the collective 600 million loss... and the "scale" of the executives becoming ever the more obscenely wealthier while the people, the men and women who make it all happen get poorer and have to work harder for that gallon of milk than ever before.
It's a joke people... don't get snowed by promises of more pay and a better airline. It wont happen. The followning is right from Delta's press release on their 6.4 billion loss/writedown today in the press:
On April 14, 2008, Delta announced an agreement to merge with
Northwest; the transaction will create America's premier global
airline, which is expected to generate in excess of $1 billion in
annual revenue and cost synergies.
It should be noted that the above statement from Delta later in their release is said to achieve that 1 billion in annual revenue and cost synergies by 2012... so until that time, over 3.5 years by the way the collective company will bleed money and probably have to go back into BK protection... the only difference will be that it will only take 1 filing this time instead of 2 filings like the last time both companies went into BK on the same day.
tailhookah out!
While I was on the thinking chair this morning I started to ponder the current environment and it started to really upset me. One in particular is the current merger attempt between Delta and NWA. The merger is just another attempt to make a bunch of money for a few while the rest of us get the torch. I'm really tired hearing words and phrases like; premier global airline; international presence; cost synergies; a more durable company that is better positioned to manage through economic cycles, invest in its fleet, and introduce innovative services for customers; diversified network footprint; create an airline with the size, scale and global presence to weather economic downturns and compete long-term in the global marketplace.
Let's break these terms down:
Premier global airline-wasn't this phrase repeatedly used by both Delta and Northwest over the last decade as they competed against each other... and by United, American, BA, Airfrance etc... I think it'll just be a premier global failure when it comes to getting your checked bags, a tiny bag of p-nuts or pretzels from a pi$$ed off employee who just gave up years of seniority due to the merger screwing them.
International presence-like either or all global airlines already don't have this?
Cost synergies-my favorite... like sharing a 10 billion write down in your 1st quarter results? Yeah real synergies happening right now. Without overlapping route networks that can be slashed, I really don't see how the DAL-NWA merger will result in much savings. The only thing it will do in greatly increase employee resentment that Dougie and Richard got theirs in the merger while the rank and file get nothing. Cost synergies will only help if you can take many existing and overlapping jobs and routes and get rid of them, which in turn will enable you to raise fares on the routes that are left over w/ less overhead. But they plan on keeping both companies intact... WTF??????
And the final bullet points.... both companies have been greatly mismanaged at the scale they are at right now. Why do people think that two mismanaged big companies will be better managed at roughly twice the size while most of the employees don't want the new company or will not want it when they figure out their quality of life will suffer? What's manageable at 5 is much harder at 10, 20, 30, 40... etc... just ask anyone who's managed people before... it's not easy and the more people you have under you it becomes an exponential issue the more you have... not linear. This new bohemuth is going to be a people department nightmare.... which in turn will be taken out directly on the customer. The only innovation for the customers will be a new and frustrating level of the lack of customer service and higher fares, resulting from a monopoly in many regions. The "scale" that's talked about will be measured in quarterly results like we've seen today... the scale of a 10 billion collective write down between the two compnies and the collective 600 million loss... and the "scale" of the executives becoming ever the more obscenely wealthier while the people, the men and women who make it all happen get poorer and have to work harder for that gallon of milk than ever before.
It's a joke people... don't get snowed by promises of more pay and a better airline. It wont happen. The followning is right from Delta's press release on their 6.4 billion loss/writedown today in the press:
On April 14, 2008, Delta announced an agreement to merge with
Northwest; the transaction will create America's premier global
airline, which is expected to generate in excess of $1 billion in
annual revenue and cost synergies.
It should be noted that the above statement from Delta later in their release is said to achieve that 1 billion in annual revenue and cost synergies by 2012... so until that time, over 3.5 years by the way the collective company will bleed money and probably have to go back into BK protection... the only difference will be that it will only take 1 filing this time instead of 2 filings like the last time both companies went into BK on the same day.
tailhookah out!
