Who would be the big loser if no merger?

[700UW]

Oh John John, why havent you replied to this?

http://www.airlineforums.com/topic/56093-american-airlines-parent-company-reports-earnings-of-292-million-and-thats-just-in-july/page__st__72#entry1022000

 

[737823]

DCA, PHL and CLT are top notch cities.

CLT is the #2 banking center in the US. DCA is the Capitol of the US and PHL is a major metro area.

Are you kidding? Seriously no one cares about CLT. PHL is a large business center but the airport is an absolute dump compared to to other carriers' hubs and the city isn't especially great either. Neither Charlotte or Philadelphia are premier destinations by any measure, they have significantly less high revenue traffic than JFK, LAX, and MIA where AA has a strong presence.

DCA? Nations capital sure, and yes US has a large operation but its mainly express carriers flying to no man cities, BOS/LGA shuttle, and a few token flights to Florida and Las Vegas. Big deal. Besides UA is much larger at IAD and has sizable international operations there, something US is unable to provide at DCA. Didn't someone post a while back that BOS has more mainline flights than DCA because so much of the operation there is Express?

CLT is the headquarters for BAC on paper but many of the key decision makers are in BOS and NYC, and I am familiar with the organizational structure at BAC. Brian Moynihan lives in Wellesley, MA not in the Charlotte area. Most of the other jobs in finance in CLT are back office positions where it is more economical for the company to have operations in CLT than NYC where real estate is cheaper, costs of doing business are lower and employees command lower salaries. Not all the bulge brackets even have offices in Charlotte, my firm doesn't thankfully.

Josh

 

[john john]

Where will those express carriers get ATP licensed pilots?

http://www.atpflightschool.com/airlines/republic_alliance.html
Republic Airways and ATP have formed an alliance with respect to Republic's interviewing and hiring policies. This agreement is designed to provide airline sponsored career track opportunities for future employment at Republic Airways and its subsidiaries for pilots completing training at ATP and meeting the following qualifications.

 

[cltrat]

my firm doesn't thankfully.

Josh

well that is something we can certainly agree on

 

[john john]

Where will those express carriers get ATP licensed pilots?

http://www.atpflightschool.com/airlines/index.html

Gain eligibility for reduced hiring minimums with ATP’s Airline Pilot Hiring Partnership Agreements. ATP has letters of agreement from American Eagle, ExpressJet, Ameriflight, Pinnacle Airlines PSA, Republic Airways, Trans States Airlines, Cape Air, SkyWest, GoJet Airlines, and Mesa Airlines. More regional airlines have letters of agreement with ATP than with any other flight school, college, or academy.

 

[LD3]

well that is something we can certainly agree on

Ain't that the truth....

 

[nycbusdriver]

http://www.atpflightschool.com/airlines/index.html

Gain eligibility for reduced hiring minimums with ATP’s Airline Pilot Hiring Partnership Agreements. ATP has letters of agreement from American Eagle, ExpressJet, Ameriflight, Pinnacle Airlines PSA, Republic Airways, Trans States Airlines, Cape Air, SkyWest, GoJet Airlines, and Mesa Airlines. More regional airlines have letters of agreement with ATP than with any other flight school, college, or academy.

The reduced hiring minimums are not very reduced.

Who pays for that flying time?

The law of diminishing returns for the prospective new pilot looms much larger today than when one could slip into the right seat of an EMB 145 with 300 hours logged.

Your "express academy" argument is a pipe dream. That will become very obvious in about 18 months when the pool of qualified ATPs dries up.

 

[Phoenix]

Uh, I didn't say the sky is falling. What I said was having approximately the same size operation, but doing it with 30,000 more employees than your competitor is a distinct cost disadvantage. There is no way around that fact. If the combined operation is to compete, something has to be done about having thousands more employees than our competitors. Can you say furloughs/layoffs/"right-sizing"?

Yeah just imagine if they layed everyone off and we still had the same size operation... Our productivity would be infinite.

 

[AAviator]

This "the sky is falling" stuff is beyond me. Load factors are crazy full and we just made a record profit last quarter... Not just profitable, it was the highest freaking 2nd quarter profit in the airline's freaking history.

Why is everyone panicking and lining up to give more contract concession?

better check with jester... You just described AA... And jester thinks AA will be liquidated?

What a collection of morons.....

BUT AA has 7 billion in the bank, The most profitable 2nd quarter in its history, record July profit, 76 seat and 128 seat gaps filled, 787's on the way, and not all the cost savings executed yet...

Yup, AA's in serious trouble here! At this rate, when do we run out of money??

LOL!!!!!!

 

[dash8roa]

You are correct. Can never happen. Look how well Eastern has done with their huge fleet and hubs.

I stand corrected.

You are comparing AA with EA? EA was on a downhill run for a long time, selling international routes, a fleet of very old planes, no new planes coming on line and the worse labor situation that the airline industry has seen. When EA went under in 1991, their only hub was ATL. Not a fair comparison.