Where did the US/AWA merger fail ?

[freedom]

While the merger between US Airways and America West Airlines has for all intents and purposes been a success , with any victory , there are failings , and before we possibly merge again I think it's time we take a moment to stop and examine where things went wrong and what we could better do next time as an airline to "get it right "

Please understand that this Topic is not so that different fighting work groups can throw accusations at each other , but so we as a company from ALL departments , union and non union , management and bottom rung worker can look at our operation and perhaps Discuss things that we could have done better .....

 

[necigrad]

Paraphrasing... "Since the HP/US merger was a success, where did it fail?" Pretty sure that's a double negative or something...

I'll be the idiot that bites however. Where did it fail? Labor. Eight years later we still have employees without a joint contract. The merger resulted in large furloughs, alienating its employees. A majority of employees didn't have the confidence that their job will be there in five years, and that was BEFORE the talks of other mergers. With the failings of UA and DL this has not changed.

 

[FWAAA]

Biggest failure I see is the failure to grow. In the almost eight years since the merger, US hasn't grown. Dollar revenues are up, to be sure, but since 2005, everyone's revenues are higher, including AA's revenues.

And to be clear, AA hasn't grown since 2005 either. But AA didn't have the lowest paid workforce, like US did. Low cost airlines should grow, not stagnate or shrink. But what has Parker done with his very low cost airline? Contracted. Continued to shrink. Instead of building up LGA, where US had more slots than anyone else, Parker retreated. Many of the LGA flights were flown with Dash8s at the time of the slot swap with DL.

I can't criticise the US contraction at LAS, as that was a peculiar situation and US didn't walk away from high-yielding traffic there. But NYC? Waving the white flag and trading away most all of the non-hub/non-shuttle slots to DL in exchange for one-third as many slots at DCA (plus a measly $65 million) was poor management.

Had Parker leveraged his very low costs at US and expanded into key business markets (like DL has done), then it's possible that Parker could have raised the pay of the pilots and FAs and maybe continued to show some profits. But instead, he sat on his thumbs for those almost-eight years hoping that he could take over UA or DL or, now, AA and use the bigger bank accounts (and revenues) to finally increase his employees' pay. IMO, he should have spent the past eight years turning US into a power-house and paying his pilots and FAs industry-average (or better) pay. Now that's on the brink of taking over AA, he has finally told his employees that they'll get their huge raises once he has control of AA's checkbook. That doesn't sound like a recipe for success.

Once the merger with AA is official, the combined airline will still lack power in NYC, won't be any bigger at DCA than US currrently, and will have the same PHL and CLT that the current US holds. The combined airline will be bigger at BOS but not larger than jetBlue.

 

[wings396]

May I ask what are the large furloughs that you speak of that were a direct result of the merger? I can only assume that are going to reference LAS, which could have taken place minus the merger. The pilots pissing match can be attributed to an internal union squabble, as they are the only ones that have dragged out this long. Of course, the FA group has been waiting on the pilots.

 

[wings396]

I think that the lack of growth has been due to a very cautious approach from Parker & Co. Remember that not very long after the operational merger, the huge fuel spike took place dealing staggering losses to all of the airlines. Most of the growth that has taken place, has been merger related. Even SWA hasn't enjoyed the type of growth that they once did. It's never been a secret that Parker wasn't done on the merger front either, and I feel that has been another driving factor to his slow growth philosophy.

 

[freedom]

I'm not going to go into great detail today , but one issue that is very near and dear to my heart is our treatment of our first class passengers and their luggage .

I feel strongly that US Airways can do a much better job in providing service to them .

 

[cltrat]

Before the merger I sort of felt like a number rather than a person, after the merger confirmed it. The company clearly treats its employees a necessary evil not the asset they are.

 

[Res Judicata]

In a van.

 

[necigrad]

May I ask what are the large furloughs that you speak of that were a direct result of the merger? I can only assume that are going to reference LAS, which could have taken place minus the merger. The pilots pissing match can be attributed to an internal union squabble, as they are the only ones that have dragged out this long. Of course, the FA group has been waiting on the pilots.

I wasn't intending to directly refer to LAS, though a majority of the referenced furloughs did occur there. LAS was not alone in the cuts, and that is what I'm talking about. Those actions have also created a culture of... fear is a bit strong a word, but maybe substantial concern for ones job. The fact that we still have people out on furlough shows that all our success as an airline isn't good for everyone. That success is driven solely by dollars and cents. The company has demonstrated that it has every intention to use this position without regard for the employees. If you don't see this you're blind.

You're right that the pilots problems is largly their own making, but my statement is not incorrect. On the flip side to that, I think a merger will actually SOLVE the pilots issues.

 

[wings396]

I've been thru it all, outsourcing, furlough, relocation, and it was all before the merger, under a different management team. While the company is somewhat to blaime, the unions are to an even greater extent. The company comes up with ways to abuse us, and then our unions go right along with it. While I understand they had little choice in BK, we aren't there anymore. A prime example is the piss poor T/A of 2008 that kept the outsourcing ball rolling, gave away profit sharing, snapbacks, and so on.

 

[signals]

While the merger between US Airways and America West Airlines has for all intents and purposes been a success , with any victory , there are failings , and before we possibly merge again I think it's time we take a moment to stop and examine where things went wrong and what we could better do next time as an airline to "get it right "

Please understand that this Topic is not so that different fighting work groups can throw accusations at each other , but so we as a company from ALL departments , union and non union , management and bottom rung worker can look at our operation and perhaps Discuss things that we could have done better .....

Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot...
This merger went bad because it proved that management can profit by dividing and conquering!

moving on!

 

[signals]

I'm not going to go into great detail today , but one issue that is very near and dear to my heart is our treatment of our first class passengers and their luggage .

I feel strongly that US Airways can do a much better job in providing service to them .

First class? Sorry but I thought that business and coach are one in the same!

 

[freedom]

Oh a local issue that I've always disliked is the state of some of our shelve carts, really hard to pull and some of them I'm sure have been the cause of back injury . After we merged with US Air we got their equipment and their carts were very well designed , VERY easy to pull .

 

[Harry Callahan]

Oh a local issue that I've always disliked is the state of some of our shelve carts, really hard to pull and some of them I'm sure have been the cause of back injury . After we merged with US Air we got their equipment and their carts were very well designed , VERY easy to pull .

If they are unsafe write them up & take them out of service.

 

[freedom]

Hard to pull carts would be like 25% of our total . Also machoism prevents more than stiffled complaint .