Originally Posted by
FriendlyPilot
United took the Hawaii 747 pilots and integrated them Date of Hire. There were not that many of them and they were fenced on the 747s and replaced with United pilots as they retired. I think they were all gone by the late 90s. It was worth it because United pilots could be based in Honolulu almost immediately.
430 pilots came over from Pan Am in the 1985 Pacific acquisition by United. 426 of them were senior to me so I dropped back on the seniority list by that number. Seniority integration by date-of-hire. Still, it was the best thing for the UAL group as it opened up flying we never would have seen.
Pan Am 747s and L-1011s came to UAL with this purchase.
Bob Crandall, American's CEO at the time, was approached before United, but turned it down. He later said it was one of his biggest mistakes.
As I recall the announcement of the acquisition occurred either just before or during the 30-day cooling off period prior to the 1985 pilot strike.