You sir are correct, allot of us here at Eagle would love to fly the narrow bodies at AA! You are also correct that allot of us (including you) here are talking rumors and need to face the facts.

1) AMR is has filled to restructure under CH11 protection
2) American and American Eagle's aircraft fleet is not competitive and isn't friendly towards customers (Small RJs, old T-Props and old S-80s)
3) Delta, US AIrways and other will attempt to not only acquire parts of AMR but also target our cornerstone hubs. Due to this AMR can't afford to shrink by a large percentage specially since most flight pass through the cornerstone hubs.

This is a quote from the last APA proposal:

"This presents a challenge and an opportunity for us. We need to be able to compete with network carriers who rely heavily on regional operators, as well as low-cost carriers. And to do that, we need to be able to economically operate smaller airplanes. But unlike our competitors, we propose solving this in a very different way. Rather than sourcing large regional jets, we propose that any incremental jet aircraft larger than 50 seats will be flown by AA pilots. To compete effectively, aircraft under 125 seats would also have special rates and work rules. (there's your B-scale)
This is a radically different approach than any of our legacy competitors are taking. It enables us to take advantage of our recent aircraft order, which allows us to source small narrowbodies (like the A319 and B737-700) at advantageous prices. It also helps us compete with the low-cost carriers and regional airlines whose low costs have driven us out of many markets over the last several years. Most importantly, it helps us create more jobs and more opportunity for pilots at our airline, while not displacing any of our current pilots under this new paradigm."

Special Jetwire from the company today:

"We are in the early days of this process and don't yet have all the answers. We are well into the first step process, which is negotiating with creditors and lessors to reduce our debt burden and optimize our fleet. This will result in some reduction in the size of our fleet as we ground some older, less efficient planes. At the same time we are working on our business plan to optimize the network with this new fleet plan. The objective is to create a plan which best serves our customers and does so producing the greatest revenue at the most efficient cost and capital structure. We will do this in a way that preserves our strategic strengths so that we can begin to grow with our big aircraft order when our restructuring is complete.

Also, as a key part of the business plan, we will put forward proposals for next-generation labor contracts for unionized groups alongside changes for all other work groups including management. While difficult, all of these changes will be grounded in our overall objective to become efficient and fully competitive in all aspects of our business. Just as we are carefully examining our fleet and network plans, we are looking at how we do our jobs, how we staff the airline, and what compensation, benefit and retirement packages will be going forward.

Of course in all of this, we will have input from other interested parties. The creditors committee and their advisors will be actively involved. We expect that the business plan and labor proposals will be coming together within the next few weeks. Just as soon as they are available we will update you on all of this."


This is public information from AMR. The unions haven't provided any information yet as they are just (to our knowledge) starting to negotiate and see what the company has to offer. Furloughs have happen at Eagle, we have 20 folks on the street and could have more (including myself) coming soon. We have 230ish Pilots who are on the AA seniority list, we also have around 25 plowbacks who are left at Eagle and are on the AA seniority list. We have an arbitration award (that has no cost to the company) for 824 slots out of the first 1648 new hires at American (in other words half of new hire classes). Then we have the "new flow" agreement that is not worth more than the paper it's written on. Rumors and speculations from us Pilot-Bloger-Managment-Backseat Drivers-Monday Morning Quarterbacks, but we don't know what the status of these agreements will be. Right the people who know what is happening at AMR ain't talking, and the ones that are don't know a whole lot. The next few weeks will tell the story. Right now Pinnacle is struggling, ASA/ExpressJet/SkyWest aren't making money or a whole lot of money, Republic is in the red, MESA just emerge from CH11 but is not doing so swell, then the rest of the small regionals aren't doing great neither. AMR has chased everyone for the last 10 years or so but the rest of the industry might be following AMR changes soon. What are those changes, we'll find out together here in the weeks to come!!!