US Airways, America West in advanced merger talks - WSJ

[Cactus73]

Wow, Cactus. Just get off a tough four day?

I rarely discuss this sort of stuff at work, and my FO's are usually too wrapped up in crew scheduling confrontations to even worry about next year. And I hope no one is afraid to tell me anything, as I say it in my brief: If you see me doing anything stupid, tell me I'm doing something stupid!

Really, this Internet medium sucks. I'm not the moron you seem to think I am, but if looking at U Group as a whole and not just the mainline makes you think that, then so be it. You win. Hope your next captain isn't so rough on you.

P.S. So is Mesa now a wholy owned subsidiary of AWA?

Not a bad four day. Got all the inlaws in town this week and weekend.

Sorry I went off, not usually my style.

I have flown with guys that think everything in this business is an accounting scandal and that the airlines are really making money hand over fist. If it weren't for a good fuel hedge AWA and SWA would have lost money. Unhedged carriers like US Airways, Delta, Continental, etc...really are paying street prices for gas these days.

The fact is, something has to give in this industry. I believe Airways is the weakest airline out there and it isn't crazy accounting. I didn't mean to call you a moron personally but the type of person (conspiracy theory) types that think like morons.

Yes, the PSA's, Piedmont's, Mid Atlantic are on your balance sheets just as our cost plus guaranteed profit for Mesa is a cash cow for Ornstien. It's not really a game, however, as anyone can read the annual reports and SEC filings and see that they are doing this stuff right out in the open.

Airway's management, like most of the industry, can't seem to think of any way to get more revenue (like raising ticket prices) so they just go to labor because we are an easy target. At AWA, our labor costs are already so low that our managment has gone out and raised ticket prices on our peak days and we actually had the highest RASM's in our history. Just for doing this they are now somehow regarded as the sharpest managment team in the business behind Southwest.

So back to the original topic - without some sort of savior - Airway's seems to be headed for Chapter 7 and it isn't and by way of "good accounting."

I can be a moron too, don't feel bad. I think I'm a moron just for wanting to get in this business in the first place.

 

[G4G5]

FDJ2

I leave you with the last word.


G4G5
Someone else was asking me about this and it struck me that I never corrected your BS. So here you go

just go down to the background "FACTS"
http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=2nd/999359.html

The existing Delta pilots had to protect their own turf. They were understandably concerned that the APA and the integration of Pan Am pilots would dilute their own status on the Delta seniority list. After extensive analysis of the impact of various integration methodologies, Delta and ALPA eventually agreed on a "modified status ratio methodology" that would spread Pan Am pilots equitably throughout Delta's seniority list.

The starting point for the integration was the position held by the most senior Delta pilot of whatever aircraft was deemed to be most nearly equivalent to the A-310. Delta deemed its Boeing 767ER ("B-767ER") to be most equivalent to the A-310 because both were long-haul twin-engine aircraft, although the B-767ER was not cleared for over-ocean voyages. Delta's most senior B-767ER pilot occupied spot #590. Thereafter, the methodology separately integrated the Pan Am captains, first officers and flight engineers, according to a ratio based on the number of comparable positions expected to exist at Delta, in the absence of the APA, as of the end of 1992.2 Thus, the formula called for dividing the number of Delta captain positions (at B-767ER captain level and below) anticipated to exist as of the end of 1992 - that is, 3,360 - by the number of Pan Am captains eventually hired by Delta - 286. This resulted in a ratio of approximately twelve to one. Thus, one Pan Am captain was integrated after every twelve spots beneath #590 - at #603, #616, #629, #641 and so on. After all the Pan Am captains had been integrated, the Delta first officers and flight engineers were then ratioed with their acquired Pan Am counterparts, resulting in one Pan Am position being created after each ten or eleven Delta positions throughout the remainder of the seniority list.

While the modified status ratio methodology gave the acquired Pan Am pilots enhanced bidding seniority vis-a-vis new hires, it also resulted in placing many former Pan Am pilots in spots below Delta pilots with less cockpit experience. Thus, once they moved over to Delta, several Pan Am pilots were relegated to cockpit positions, aircraft, and routes less desirable than those they had flown at Pan Am. For example, some 55-year-old Pan Am pilots found themselves flying in positions junior to 35-year-old pilots who had been with Delta their entire career. However, the Pan Am pilots were integrated in seniority order - that is, within the integrated seniority list, and thus, Pan Am pilots maintained their seniority relative to other Pan Am pilots.

On August 30, 1991, Delta and ALPA entered into a supplemental collective bargaining agreement authorizing Delta to implement the modified status ratio methodology to integrate the Pan Am pilots into the Delta seniority list on November 1, 1991, the same day that the final aspects of the acquisition were scheduled to close.

Agreed to by the DALALPA MEC:
When Delta offered employment to the Pan Am pilots, it did so at their pre-existing Pan Am pay rates with scheduled incremental increases to parity with Delta's pay scale spread out over three years

The DAL MEC came up with the seniority intergration and 3 year financial screwing! Or would you suggest that the Pan Am ALPA MEC devised their own intergration?