Us Airways' True Problem Created By

[usfliboi]

And the man in charge has a firm grip on the handle, knows what needs to be done, has the employees support and is looked upon with great respect. Furthermore, He is not morally twisted, and even has the respect of powerful government officials who throw praises on our leadership for treating the employee so well. No wonder you are behind this team 1000 plus %

Youre correct and I am and wasnt this thread about ED?

 

[FlyingHippie]

Ed Colodny, great man, I prospered under his tenure. It was a privledge to work for him. At least I can say in my lifetime that I worked for a CEO with the utmost integrity and decency. Can any of us say that about Dave Siegel? No. Sure, mistakes were made by Colodny, Schofield, Malin the whole gang. Look around the aviation business and show me perfection. It aint there, even the belle of the ball Southwest is having some labor pains. What kills me is that the original poster of this topic lives in a very large house in the North Hills of Pittsburgh that would otherwise NOT be possible if Ed Colodny had not run a profitable company in the 1980's. I find the nerve of this person just amazing. Ed Colodny gave you a great place to work, excellent pay and benefits, and now you turn into some sniveling loser who will do anything to hold on to the bottom line including going back 20 years to place blame. It's sick! Maybe I am getting too personal, but I am calling it like I see it.

 

[FlyingHippie]

The topic and sub-topic are truly a non sequitur.

However, Colodny does hold much of the blame for the mess USAirways is in today.

1. When he merged the three airlines, he promised to keep the best of the three operations, then proceeded to make the purchased carriers "mirror images" of USAir. In the demeaning process, he managed to alienate more than half of his employees and run costs through the roof.

2. He upheld the traditional good-ole-boy network at USAir and proceeded to let an incompetent take the helm upon his departure, just because he's been around the longest. In doing so, he pushed one of the most effective managers in the business out the door.

3. He consistently held out against trans Atlantic operations. In fact, if Piedmont had not already had 767s heading for London, I doubt USAir would have ever gone trans Atlantic at all. We would have been toast long ago without that revenue. Many high level politicos went to great lengths to get Piedmont that London authority, and they were ready to crucify Colodny if he shut the route down (which is what most feared.)

4. And we have the perennial classic: "Training is a fixed cost." Tell that to Herb Kelleher, whose pilots attend ONE initial aircraft training program in their entire career. I know of one USAir pilot (not me, of course, since I don't work at USAirways,) who is now attending his 11th inital ground school, and will likely hit 12 before he retires (assuming the company survives that long.) Fixed cost? Maybe for Kelleher, but certainly not for "never met an aircraft type I didn't buy" Colodny.

5. Cool northern efficiency. 'nuff said.


Colodny may be the nicest man on the planet. "Nicest man on the planet" does not equate with effective, knowledgable CEO.

Give me an SOB who knows what the hell is going on, can formulate a viable plan and carry it out effectively over the "nicest man on the planet" any day. For example, Bob Crandall.

Here's a rant by Bill Maher that's pretty on target.

http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/new_rules/index.html

February 06, 2004

MAHER: All right. It is time for this week's New Rules!

And finally, New Rule: Southerners have to at least consider voting for candidates from the North. North Carolina Senator John Edwards has a powerful argument in his bid to be the Democratic nominee when he says, "What I give people is a candidate who can win everywhere in America." Translation: "We Southerners ain't gonna vote for no Yankee." "You suckers up north will take our Clintons and Carters, but we just ain't buyin' Kerrys and Deans."

And that's a shame, not just for Democrats, but for democracy itself. And I feel bad for the millions of intelligent people who live in a region still dominated by so much prejudice that anyone who wants to be president better have a twang in his voice and pronounce all four "e's" in the word "sh*t."

I'm sorry, but responding only to people who look and sound like you is small-minded. So if Southerners don't want to have an inferiority complex, I say, stop doing things that make reasonable people think you're inferior. Like getting rid of slavery was a good start. But don't stop there. Stop being the place that's always challenging the theory of evolution.

What's next to challenge? Gravity? Is that just a plot by the Jews up north to get people to drop spare change?

And I like the South. I love to party there. But Southerners need to let go of the Civil War, beginning with those re-enactments. First of all, you're re-enacting something you lost. It's one thing - it's one thing to gloat about victory, but when you do it about losing, your front porch is a few couches short of being decorated.

The time has come to move on. The time has come to consider - just consider - voting for a Yankee. Howard Dean's Vermont and John Kerry's Massachusetts are no longer where carpetbaggers come from. Carpet munchers, yes. That, we have established.

But there is no good reason that America, at this late date, still needs to be a house divided. At bottom, we all want the same things: dignity, security and someone to slap the sh*t out of Janet Jackson.

 

[TheLarkAscending]

Ed Colodny gave you a great place to work, excellent pay and benefits, and now you turn into some sniveling loser who will do anything to hold on to the bottom line including going back 20 years to place blame. It's sick! Maybe I am getting too personal, but I am calling it like I see it.

Couldn't agree with you more thoroughly -- oh, and I'm almost positive that we wouldn't call that area the North Hills, that would be an insult to the real North Hills.

 

[USA320Pilot]

Ed Colodny was a great man, but the day he bought and then Piedmont, he transformed US Airways into the highest cost, regional based airline in the world. Too many fleet types, too many facilities, too many employees, and too much of everything.

Moreover, the route network structure does create feed, but until recently the airline had nowhere to feed it to.

The hubs have poor O&D, they're to close together, they cannibalize themselves, which creates low yield, and the high yield routes are under intense pressure by the LCC's, who are acting like sharks in the water.

Yes, Mr. Colodny was a great man who paid bonuses, but he created this mess that Mr. Schofield, Mr. Wolf, and Mr. Siegel have been trying to fix ever since.

Respectfully,

USA320Pilot

 

[TheLarkAscending]

Mr. Colodny was a great man who paid bonuses, but he created this mess that Mr. Schofield, Mr. Wolf, and Mr. Siegel have been trying to fix ever since.

Respectfully,

USA320Pilot

Amazing reasoning, Schofield failed, but that makes it Colodny's fault. Wolf failed, and again, you blame Colodny. Siegel and his merry band of marauders have been failing miserably but that, following your logic, means that they're all completely unaccountable for whatever decisions or actions they'd taken during their respective tenure(s). Blame belongs solely on the doorstep of Uncle Ed. Ahh, right

 

[PITbull]

USA320,

If you were here on our property then, Colodney bought Piedmont as a "poison pill" response to not being bought or taken over by the likes of Icahn or Lorenzo. He even said that and that was reported in the media....the idea was to get B-I-G, so no one could buy us. We bought PSA at the same time.

There was a "rationale" for this back then. Your hx escapes you. Presently, this current mangement has the ability to implement "the plan" without concessions. As Boeing boy said in another thread, they always had the tools to address and take steps to increase revenue.....they just chose not to do it, or were not focused to be "inclined". Hey, their your heros, and that's where you lose me.

 

[USA320Pilot]

I find it interesting that my comments are shared by ALPA International E&FA and their advisors, but some posters dispute them here. Moreover, look at the hub comparisons in Ted Reed's column.

I am entering my 20th year and I know all about the issues. The route network is the problem, which creates much of the cost problem.

Respectfully,

USA320Pilot

 

[TheLarkAscending]

Just because your comments (or thoughts) may be shared by someone else does not necessarily validate them. It doesn't matter what year you're entering. I still disagree with your logic. Each regime is responsible for their own actions or inactions. If I follow your logic, I can assign you all responsibility for any mistakes I've made over the last 20 years. I am no longer accountable, you are.

 

[ClueByFour]

I find it interesting that my comments are shared by ALPA International E&FA ans their advisors, but some posters dispute them here. Moreover, look at the hub comparisons in Ted Reed's column.

APLA's E&FA have been wrong on so many things that their credibility speaks for itself. UA keeps hitting those DIP numbers--that alone ruins their credibility.

Moreover, if the folks behind ALPA's EF&A knew what they were doing, they'd be out working for and saving major airlines, not getting paid by the hour with dues money of hardworking pilots.

The mistake at U was never connecting the dots to the PSA operation. A combination of a mid-country hub and not denying what was good about the PI and PSA acquisitions (in other words, the mirror image BS) would have allowed U to create and maintain the necessary critical mass to be a national airline.

The truth is that if there were a mid-country hub today, the talk of a UCT would be moot--the merger with America West would have happened, and with the current cost structure at both carriers, it would probably work.

I'm reminded of this mistake when I board a flight from LAX to SFO, and fondly remember when both the flight number and the metal belonged to USair.

 

[robbedagain]

usa: how do you fix a problem of this type? do you have to say turn pit into a cvg style, have clt or phl an atl style and say maybe the other a dfw type?
would that help?

 

[FlyingHippie]

USA320Pilot, okay take all the money you made from when you started in 1985 until Ed left in 1991 and give it back to the company. You just said the company was flawed, doomed, whatever. Yet, you still cashed that paycheck twice a month. How could you live with yourself knowing this back then?

 

[linemech]

Yes, Mr. Colodny was a great man who paid bonuses, but he created this mess that Mr. Schofield, Mr. Wolf, and Mr. Siegel have been trying to fix ever since.

Respectfully,

USA320Pilot

A320PILOT,

Your belief that Mr. Colodny is responsible for the present state of your airline
just does not make sense.

Even taking into account all the so called mistakes you suggest he made running the airline, it was still profitable. A route structure that worked in the 80's could not be expected to work now as times have changed.

If you think that Mr. Colodny should have been able to foresee the growth of LCC's 20 yrs into the future, not to mention the threats of terrorism that have driven the entire country to rethink how they do businness and travel, then I can see your point, although I strongly disagree with it.

Mr. Schofield and Wolf were not concerned with fixing a mess created by Mr. Colodny, they were only concerned with what was in it for them.
As for Mr. Siegel, his main concern seems to be lowering costs by ignoring CBA's that he and his team negotiated. Only to cover up for his inability to formulate a plan that would lead your airline out of the pit that Mr. Colodny dug all by himself, and pushed "U" into.

LINEMECH.

 

[PITbull]

linemech,

You are the closest thing to the truth of past events, and current status, with who is responsible for what, than anyone has posted on this thead.

 

[diogenes]

I enjoy Maher as much as the next guy, but I never confuse a comedian with a journalist, either.

Maher conveniently overlooked the fact Kerry, in his own words, has already written off the South.

Now I think Bush is the absolute WORST thing that can happen to working stiffs, but right about now I'm figuring the powers-that-be at the DNC would rather be right than win.

Don't have a problem voting for a Yankee - I married one.

Got a big problem pre-emptively supporting a guy that, barring the unforeseen, Bush will beat like a drum - the worst of all outcomes.