Originally Posted by R57 relay

Growth, that's funny. On the June 2005 bid the east had 2782 line pilots. This month's bid had 2688 line pilots and 164 of them are on the E190, which doesn't count toward the min fleet. For good reason. So that is 258 less pilots on the 737 and bigger A/C, or about 9%. We have take more A330s which help the numbers and the E190 fleet has added some management pilots, but it's hardly "growth".

The west may have contracted more, I don't have your numbers. But one thing have to remember is that the east was massively understaffed when the merger was announced. Don't believe me? Go look at the pilots per A/C on the Nicolau award.

The west pilots tend to judge this merger by comparing what they have to what they had back in May 2005. The problem with this view is that most believe you would not been able to hold on to what you had. Doug Parker, the CEO of AWA, not the original US Airways, has said that over and over and that we are all better off with the merger than without. That you indeed would not have been able to hold on to what you had. What the east had that helped things look better was the start of the attrition before the age 60 rule changed.

I think we can all agree that without the US/AWA merger neither company would be in a position today of looking at taking over AA. Whether that helps or hurts us, I don't know.