From the May 28 CLT crew news:

(First, thanks to the guy asking these excellent questions)
Q: Why do we own two commuter airlines? We have two sets of administration, why don't you combine them into one?
Kirby: "We own two [psa & pdt], its an artifact of history. There's not big savings in combining just those two ... To be honest with you what we would like to do ultimately is consolidate more than just those two regionals"
Q: They have two seperate headquarters, all the extra administration, if you just saved $100 would it be worth it?
Kirby: "We'd have two seperate operations anyway ...There are savings, we've looked at it, but the savings are in the $2 million range, and its a lot of work and a lot of headache to get $2 million a year and to combine operating certificates and it just hasn't been the priority. There may be opportunities to roll those airlines together hypothetically with an ARW ... or Mesa comin out of bankruptcy. So to go through all the work, expense, and brain damage[] of trying to consolidate just to get $2 million worth of savings hasn't been worth it yet and hasn't been a priority yet. "


My take: $2 Million a year is not worth the effort? Wow. How much do these guys get paid again? Senior mgmt says "Meh, we don't get paid enough to work that hard" ??? What a joke. It's the same excuse the rampers use for why they aren't out there to marshall us in. The same reason the gate agents don't promptly greet the express flights. The same reason my dispatcher sends me directly through a line of thunderstorms instead of around it. I think that corporate culture starts at the top, and this seems to be ours;

USAirways: "Not worth the effort"