Originally Posted by gettinbumped

Per the Transition Agreement:

Section 6
Single FAA Operating Certificate and Single Transportation System

6-A. Single Operating Certificate. Commencing no later than the Merger
Closing Date, the Airline Parties will take such actions as are necessary and
appropriate to securing expeditious approval of the FAA for the right to operate
under a Single Operating Certificate.

All this states is that the Company must take action to secure expeditious approval of the FAA Single Operating Certificate; it doesn't state that the approval can't be granted until there is a JCBA. Actually, the Company would be in violation by waiting rather than seeking expeditious approval.

6-B. Single Transportation System. The Airline Parties will provide to ALPA
such support as it reasonably requests in order to secure expeditious recognition
by the NMB of a Single Transportation System. Assuming the Airline Parties are
continuing in good faith to meet their obligations under Section 2 hereof, no later
than thirty (30) days following the Merger Closing Date, ALPA will file, and
United and Continental will support, a petition with the NMB requesting that the
NMB declare that United and Continental are operating as a single carrier within
the meaning of the RLA.

6-C. Regulatory and Political Processes. Assuming the Airline Parties are
continuing in good faith to meet their obligations under Section 2 hereof, ALPA
will not oppose the Airline Parties’ efforts to obtain regulatory and political
support



The company has already failed in its self-proposed timeline of having a contract by mid-October. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch for ALPA to contend that the company is in violation of the transition agreement if we were not to have a JCBA by proposed date of the S.O.C at the end of 2011.

So ALPA could ask for a gajillion dollar increase and then claim that the Company is in violation of the TA agreement because they haven't agreed to it? I don't think that logic would pass the reasonableness test in any venue.

Furthermore, on the last day of 2011, the Transition Agreement becomes void, and both carriers are free to go back to negotiating for their own separate contracts. I'm not clear whether the mixed flying being started now would have to cease or not, but at the very least, those crews would be flying out of domicile.

Quite the contrary, neither CBA restricts opening new domiciles, the Trasition Agreement does. When it becomes void, so does the probation on opening coterminous domiciles.

So at that point the company would have to convince the FAA (or the courts if ALPA took it there) that they had met ALL their requirements to be issued a S.O.C.

The FAA does not care if we don't combine the pre-merger pilot groups any more than they care that some airlines separate domestic and international categories and some airlines don't. All they care about is that everyone is using the Ops Specs, procedures, AQP document, etc..

Assuming they get that far, which I don't think is a guarantee, they now are left with a USAirways type of operation operating essentially as two separate carriers with two separate training departments, etc. If they fail to reach and agreement with the mechanics, dispatchers, etc., then they lose further synergies.

I said that it does have some value, just nowhere near what most seem to think.

Recently, even USAirways finally admitted that its costing them more to operate separately then the savings in the crappy contract are worth and urged the pilots to settle the seniority dispute.

I have not seen this admission (please provide the source) and feel it has much more to do with the fact that they are somewhat hamstrung from participating in any further industry consolidation without getting the situation resolved. It was a huge issue in the UA-US merger talks earlier this year.

We may not have the poison pill to stop a merger, and we may lose a legal battle to prevent a S.O.C, but we DO have the power to completely destroy the projected numbers for this merger as they are based on achieving complete merger synergy. There is a REASON Delta and NWA didn't want to merge without a contract and list in place.

No, we can't completely destroy the projected numbers. 800 to 900MM of the synergies are forecast to come from revenue enhancement. Unless we win the upcoming arbitration ( which is not likely) we don't control access to that. The remaining 200 to 300MM is from cost savings. We don't control the elimination of duplicated management and facilities, which is the bulk of the savings.

Further, from Aviation Week eons ago:

The union (USAPA) lost this arbitration a long time ago.

US Airways and its two pilot unions are wrangling over possible violations of a transition agreement that has served as a guide to completing the US Airways-America West merger.

The dispute is one of several that have complicated contract negotiations and US Airways' application for an FAA operating certificate, which is scheduled to be issued Sept. 26. The single operating certificate would be one of the final acts of the merger, which began two years ago this month.

I think it would be safe to say that the Airways dorked up any claim they would have had against the company with their maneuvers.