Today the company responded. Take it for what it's worth.
> Last week, US Airways filed two separate Securities and Exchange
> Commission (SEC) Form S-3 registration statements that have drawn a lot of
> media attention. Some media reports were not entirely accurate or
> complete, so we wanted to be sure employees understood the information.
>
> The purpose of the registration statements simply was to register the
> warrants (options to buy LCC stock) and/or stock that was issued in
> transactions relating to the merger. One of the transactions involved an
> affiliate of Airbus, and the other pertained to the shares of our new
> equity investors. In both cases, the company was obligated to register the
> securities with the SEC.
>
> In each of the filings, there was a section titled "Risk Factors," which
> included statements regarding fuel-price risk, interest-rate risk,
> government-regulation risk, terrorist-attack risk, the risk of continuing
> financial losses, and more. These statements are nothing new, as they have
> been disclosed in every previous registration statement filed by the
> company. In fact, all public companies include similar language in their
> SEC filings. The purpose of these statements is to protect the investing
> public, as well as the company for potential loss of investment should
> something happen that was not in our plan (e.g. terrorist attacks,
> excessively high oil costs, stock market crash, etc.). Statements like
> these are intended to make sure that all parties involved are aware of
> such risks.
>
> One of the "risk factors" mentioned was regarding our "significant
> operating losses" in 2006. The media picked up on this information
> regarding 2006 earnings and reported that the financial outlook has
> changed. This simply is not the case. As we stated on the Q3 earnings
> results conference call, we are comfortable projecting a 2006 profit,
> excluding one-time merger related expenses.
>
> The bottom line is that the information in the registration statements is
> not "news" per se; rather it's a common disclaimer and, in the case of US
> Airways, it included information that has been disclosed publicly since
> the merger was announced in May.
>
> So why does the media pick it up and report it like it's news? Good
> question and, we confess, we aren't always sure. Sometimes it's just a
> slow news day, other times, unfortunately, reporters haven't been reading
> prospectus filings as closely as they should to recognize that this is not
> news. And even when we let them know that this information has not
> changed, they feel compelled to report it as news anyway. But that's okay;
> we'll keep working from our end to educate our media friends. And at least
> we're not Kevin and Britney or Nick and Jessica...look at what's
> considered "news" in those stories!
>
> This message was distributed to the "All Employees" distribution list in
> the Outlook Global Address List.
>