again, it is great to see AA's stock moving up... but let's keep in mind that AA is getting a big earnings push because of the combination of low fuel prices and no hedges which allow fuel prices to go directly to the bottom line.
It is still likely that for the first quarter and possibly beyond, AA will have revenue shrink.
As much as you want to believe otherwise, it does happen as a result of the merger process as hubs are rationalized.
the reason why UA equity fell is because it screwed up a lot with its merger. AA might not come anywhere close to doing the same - and I doubt if they will - but there are a lot of external factors that could affect AA.
AA might be close to SOC and likely avoid major labor problems because of the pilot and FA contracts but res system integration is likely to yield even bigger changes including potentially starting to move pieces around on the network, smoething that doesn't make sense as long as AA and US are still being operated on their own res and revenue mgmt. systems.
we have only heard brief executive assessments of the impact of WN's growth at DAL but the DOT data will be available publicly in a month or so.
further, the Latin situation continues to deteriorate with analysts expecting a 2 to as long as 10 year recession in Brazil, AA's largest revenue market in Latin America and the one where AA has been more dependent on local travel to the US than either DL or UA. Further, low cost carriers are growing. Latin America will be a bleak spot for AA for the foreseeable future.
and again, the issue is not that AA cannot make the merger work, increase its value to investors, or grow away from Latin America.
the issue here is that AA is growing its TPAC network in markets that other carriers are not interested in yielding to AA.
AKL might be a nice place to go where no US carrier is flying but since UA flew it at one time, it is very possible that an AA addition would result in UA deciding that with a 787 and low fuel prices, the market works for them as well.
and AA's bigger problem developing its TPAC network is that everything AA can add to Asia outside of DFW or PHL is going to be in a market where DL or UA and a whole bunch of other carriers have real interest.
if AA can add service to markets and not see other carriers add capacity on top of AA and at the same time fix the revenue shortfalls AA has in its existing routes to Asia, then AA can absolutely succeed.
but too many people here seem to think that AA will overcome both of those obstacles just because AA needs to grow a west coast to Asia network.