Never;
That’s the beauty o f the PID (Policy Initiation Date). We are speaking specifically of the PID of AWA’s acquisition of AAA. I believe that the PID for this “merger” took place in May 2005. Apparently we need a memory lesson in the financial state of the airlines when the PID was set.
Let’s have a look at the expert testimony of Mr. Bob Mann during the arbitration proceedings (January 09, 2007):
FREUND: Could you describe in your own terms basically what it is that you are going to be taking us through?
MANN: Well, it is a comparison of two airlines, a tale of two airlines, if you will, and it goes straight to the long term trends in both infrastructure, fleet, operating metrics, block hours, and employment, particularly of pilots, at these two firms, and some of the reasons why one firm, despite experiencing the same cyclicality that the industry has basically, is forced or that the industry faces from competitive forces, economic forces outside and inside, one airline was able to grow steadily while the other airline suffered a long decline.
FREUND: And I take the airline that was able to grow steadily in your judgement was America West and the airline that was in steady decline was US
Airways; is that correct?
MANN: That is correct.
The germane topic is who was where in May 2005, NOT who is where May 2011. On the topic of arbitration, this one Is both FINAL and BINDING. No pilot seniority arbitration has EVER been overturned by the courts (let alone by the antics of the antithesis of a “union”).