He's The Exec At Controls Of Us Airways'

[barbeetantrums]

In order for the MEGA LCC to get to that level more cuts need to be done.. Big deep cuts.. Painful cuts.. Dougie is not up to the challenge.

[post="285481"][/post]​

Ask any of the hundreds of employees who lost their jobs when CMH was dehubbed if "Dougie" is not up to the challenge of big cuts. And he had the balls to go to their breakroom and tell the news to their faces. And LGA... and MDW... CHOP CHOP CHOP

If you ever walk into your breakroom and Doug is there, you may be in for a bad day. Make a note of that.

It's nothing personal, it's just business.

 

[Finish or Ignore]

If "creating impressions of excellence" didn't bring about cultural change... what makes you think this will?

Once creditors wise up and stop bailing this loser druggy teenage step child out of jail, you'll see the change.

[post="285479"][/post]​

Impressions of excellence was almost identical to the Wizard of Oz scene where the wizard tells them not to question him or look behind the curtain. Or, Just shut up and do what they say. Since it was lead by thieves and bums it was destined to be ineffective.

 

[flytchick]

As a 20 yr. f/a with AW I have to tell you I was skeptical at best when Doug took over. I have to say I am impressed with how he has turned our airline around. Our morale is a good as it has ever been and he is upfront and a straight shooter. He regularly holds town hall meetings - he is accessible and doesn't hesitate if he is on your flight to come to the galley and talk about what you want to discuss. I have found very, very few employees who do not respect him and his management style. We think the merger will enable us to kick some butt in the airline business. I have several friends over at WN and they are all talking about what the merger will mean to them........... we are coming..........

 

[700UW]

A merger means nothing unless you fix the operational problems at US created by Al Crellin, oh wait, Al is not gonna fix anything in the same role of the merged airline because he thinks nothing is wrong!

 

[desertgal]

CASM....this is what it comes down to.
HPs CASM is in line to compete w/WN.
I ran into a US FA at the hotel in LAS. Her thought was, Once we have more members and thus more bargaining power, maybe we can get a raise!.
I didn't respond to this daydream of hers, but the reality is, US can expect to come down to where we are as far as rates of pay.
HELLO! Who's making a profit!?
Higher labor costs aren't gonna do it. Sad, but true.
I'm maxed out on the pay scale, and really am only hoping for cost of living increases, and to hold the line on health care costs, which the company has already been chipping away at.

CHOP CHOP as barbee said.
US is almost exactly twice as large as HP. Yet we operate w/only ONE crew base (well, a very small pilot base in LAS to support NiteFlites)
Bases and their facilities cost money.

On the flip side, we offer a better product onboard. Not sure how that is possible with less cost.

I think what HP_FA was alluding to, is it is up to the employees and their attitudes to make the merger work. We can be happy, or not.
The WN formula: low cost + happy employees = success.

 

[Light Years]

CASM....this is what it comes down to.
HPs CASM is in line to compete w/WN.
I ran into a US FA at the hotel in LAS.  Her thought was, Once we have more members and thus more bargaining power, maybe we can get a raise!.

[post="285918"][/post]​

That F/A probably doesn't realize that on 9/11, US Airways had over 400 aircraft and 10,400 F/As. They now have 260 a/c and 4,600 active F/As (excluding the "MAA" which is 28 planes/250 F/As).

HP has I believe 2500 or so F/As.

After the merger the new US Airways will still be smaller than the original one was four years ago. If you just added the current active lists at both airlines you would still only have 7000 or so, less than the 10,400. What a stupid thing to say on her part, but unfortunately pretty typical.

 

[diogenes]

Concur. More cuts are coming U's way.

FWIW, WN employees are fully unionized, and well paid.

The CASM difference is;

1. One fleet type, and all the training, mech. and inventory cost-savings that goes with it. And that fleet is aloft longer, hence more revenues.

2. Superior business plan - they are much less hub, and much more into moving folks at a reasonable price from large metro area to large metro area. Much cheaper to fly a customer PVD-FLL than PVD-CLT-FLL, or PVD-PHL-FLL, or PVD-PIT-FLL (U offers all 3 options) In the U model, they are competing with.....themselves?!?

The WN model is much more efficient.

3. Superior management. They love Herb, y'all like Doug, we....well, I'll get kicked off the board if I go there.

With HP/US committed to hubbing, and everything else being equal, the only place the money CAN come from is labor.

 

[Finish or Ignore]

As a 20 yr. f/a with AW I have to tell you I was skeptical at best when Doug took over. I have to say I am impressed with how he has turned our airline around. Our morale is a good as it has ever been and he is upfront and a straight shooter. He regularly holds town hall meetings - he is accessible and doesn't hesitate if he is on your flight to come to the galley and talk about what you want to discuss. I have found very, very few employees who do not respect him and his management style. We think the merger will enable us to kick some butt in the airline business. I have several friends over at WN and they are all talking about what the merger will mean to them........... we are coming..........

[post="285910"][/post]​

Flychick..........Don't want to dampen your enthusiasim but Al Crellin is coming too.

 

[barbeetantrums]

Don't bet the farm 700. This is to odd not to be something we on the outside can't see.

Frankly there is a method to the madness. Has to be.

[post="286192"][/post]​

"Smithers, I have a saying, 'Keep yours friends near, but your enemies nearer.' As the years roll by he'll forget about this, little realizing the Sword of Damoclese is hanging over his head until..." - Montgomery Burns

 

[delldude]

A merger means nothing unless you fix the operational problems at US created by Al Crellin, oh wait, Al is not gonna fix anything in the same role of the merged airline because he thinks nothing is wrong!

[post="285913"][/post]​

he'll do to HP what a virus does to a good computer program.......bet me.

 

[jimcfs]

he'll do to HP what a virus does to a good computer program.......bet me.

[post="286213"][/post]​

Is he a virus or a worm? Both are bad to computers.

 

[desertgal]

With HP/US committed to hubbing,

[post="285941"][/post]​

HP is not committed to 'hubbing'.
They have been experimenting for a couple of years with point to point.

I do agree with you the key WNs success is the single a/c type.
Everything they do is smart. And they are very aggressive. Like kudzu.
Their corporate culture is very cult-like.

 

[tadjr]

HP is not committed to 'hubbing'.
They have been experimenting for a couple of years with point to point.

[post="286249"][/post]​

Wonder if part of getting PHL in line would be to put the focus there on O&D, International conx and thats it. If you can make a conx thats a bonus, but not to offer service to all these places that are competing with conx at CLT/(DCA) that dont have the PHL local traffic available. This would force conx to use CLT/(DCA) where the planes could be used mainly for connection traffic (especially since many markets dont have enough CLT traffic for O&D flights). Use the planes that not having these flights at PHL would free up to start the "supposed" point to point service that was going to start after the last exit from bankruptcy. There are a lot of markets where you could avoid a hub and run point to point or multistop flights that would help reduce having to get people to connect (while reducing the cost of flying them there as well.) You also wouldnt have to offer multiple nonstop/1 stop flights in the market if it couldnt handle it. A morning up, a night down with conx available the other times of the day via a hub.
Also another thing I have been wondering, why dont we do a couple times a week flights like many of the LCCs do? USA3000/Pan Am, etc offers flights once or twice a week only in many markets. We could offer Mo/We/Fr in one market and Tu/Th/Sa(Su) in another market and use the plane to the Caribbean on Su(Sa). This would give people the option of a nonstop/1stop flight one way on certain days and they would still have the connection option available if they had to come back on a different day of the week than the nonstop/1 stop wasnt offered on. I would think people would prefer to book this type of flight both ways, but would at least prefer it one way if it were offered vs having to conx on US both ways while another carrier might offer it one way or both.
I also know this type of scheduling might be harder to plan for staffing, but if it makes money, get someone (or a computer program) that can do the job. If the plane isnt full A to B 7 days a week, do something different with it.