Prior to the aquisition America West was growing. We had Airbus 320 family orders coming for the next 4 years and we had firm orders for the A 350 which were America West orders. Growth in PHX has been stalled with an infatuation with PHL, which is fine but realize that the America West of 4 years ago and the West operation today are two different animals. Since there is no breakdown in operations results from the East and West I do not know how you can possibly say the the West is bleeding money. We do know that Kirby and Parker said that LGA was losng money, that is why the gate swap for DCA was done. You may be thinking of initial 10K statemets after the merger, realize that America West Holdings (the West) absorbed all merger expenses, none were charged to US Airways at that time. That resulted in the America West portion of the combined airline showing a loss. AWA had some of the lowest costs in the industry before the merger, that is why we made money competing with SWA. Now we are a bloated, inefficient carrier with our principla hub based in the Mogadishu of the United States

You seem bent on denigrating the accomplishments of America West before the merger. You are free to say what you want but realize that we will correct your factual errors. You can live in your dreamworld and I do hope you are happy there. Know that we out West have always enjoyed our jobs and we have always had pride in ourselves and our ability to overcome adversity. We always said we were one CEO and one contact away from being a great place to work. I guess we are still looking for that to happen and that is why we would welcome a merger to get us out from this disaster of an operation. This management is going down the same failed road that US Air has travelled before, placing an emphasis on the yields out East without controling the exorbient costs that are incurred with that type of operation. The days of .30 cents a seat mile yields like Piedmont had are gone forever.