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What you also fail to see is that LUV, LCC and DAL can work in concert on the AMR deal and everyone is seen as a winner, well at least though November.
Airlines play a large, but generally silent part in politics. I do not see that happening this time around. Not with AMR in 1113C. Different game and different times.
LOL, the closest influence any politician will have over AMR's fate is MR.Originally Posted by acl65pilot
What you and FtB fail to realize is that the states in question are the swing states for November. Jobs are going to be key in this election. RA sits on the Reserve Board, knows what buttons to push and how to push em. What you also fail to see is that LUV, LCC and DAL can work in concert on the AMR deal and everyone is seen as a winner, well at least though November.
Airlines play a large, but generally silent part in politics. I do not see that happening this time around. Not with AMR in 1113C. Different game and different times.
No question jobs will be important, but GM and Chrysler almost didn't get the government's financial backing for bankruptcy and both of those companies had many more employees and associated suppliers and a more favorable voter sentiment associated with them than the airlines ever had.
AMR is already in CH11, that's a big difference. Its a Texas company. The bases mentioned employ, at best, a couple thousand people in each of those swing states. I'd be surprised if each of those states didn't lay off many more state workers in the past few years, than there are employees in each of those states' AMR hubs. At best few thousand jobs/state.
I'm not belittling the potential for job loss and the terrible impact that might have on the lives of those affected. I'm just pointing out that in context of the greater economy those potentially affected will be little more than collateral damage to the political process.
In the end money talks and the interests of the PBGC will be most represented when it comes to the political aspect of the AMR bankruptcy process due to the massively underfunded pension obligations.
Out of all the airlines, LUV is the only one with the perceived public "goodwill" and the lobbying wallet to shape the political aspect of AMRs future. (JetBlue being a distant second)
Cheers
George