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AMR is walking a tight rope right now, have to show enough progress to maintain the creditors from supporting US Airways but bad enough to get the contracts they seek. 95 million in quarterly profits, best revenue quarter ever!

From Yahoo stocks

Delta and United had nearly identical first-quarter revenue of around $8.5 billion American had $6.5 billion

Remember American is over 1/3 smaller than Delta and United. AMR has been outpacing the competition for over a QT

It will be interesting to see how those numbers come up for the second quarter, I am not certain that AMR has the judge in the bag, taking into account the contract Delta just signed. I hope this TA gets voted down

 

More then aware of what "ropes" Horton is walking. The creditors are FIRMLY on his side so long as he demonstrates he's in control of labor, especially the pilots. The best chance of derailing AMR and their tombstone plan is for labor to continue their rejection of the AMR management team. THAT is what MAY force the creditors to flee to Parker. Although the judge heavily favors the debtor (in this case AMR) in reorganization, he favors the interests of the creditors first. Since right now, there is no one else besides the debtor and the debtor has yet to demonstrate their hold on future costs is unraveling, the creditors will remain loyal and the judge will back the creditors directly and thus the debtor indirectly.

If the TA fails, I expect the judge to unseal his decision that is already made and it will be for abrogation. Then, I'd expect AMR to have no alternative to come back and try and get deals. They COULD just try and arrogantly rebuild the smaller AA they want to with no pilot contract, but that would freak out the banks that would be lending money for all these aircraft purchases. They'd be as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs about commiting all that capital when the 2nd highest cost structure (labor costs) will likely cahnge in an unknown amount, turning the stand alone plan to dog****. In coming back to get deals, I expect AMR to ther start from the bottom up again (the 1113), hopefully realizing that they'll have to improve beyond the LBFO to realistically get any CBA with duration or the trying the other option (that is even more likely in my book) and that would be for both AMR and the APA to punt and agree to binding arbitration with the LBFO as the litmus. The APA has already thrown that concept out there and while AMR technically didn't agree, they didn't officially reject.

That would be one way to take the pesky pilots out of the equation, but whatever the plan, time is running out and whatever path occurs, it will have to be fairly quick. Of course, the pilots could always buckle at the testicles and ratify this flaming turd and that would be that for the next decade. That of course, is what AMR wants and they're pulling out all the stops to make that happpen.

 

If history is any gauge the TA will likely pass. The bankruptcy contract at Delta had the highest vote in favor of any in the last 15 years, I believe it was 82% in favor of....fear is a powerful thing.

 

Definately a possibility. There's a shadow of pilots here that expect to be told what to think and will believe almost anything. Whether that is enough to result in the TA being rejected is yet to be seen.

 

The difference between Delta's BK TA and ours (AA) is that they were coming down off a huge contract...at that time their FO's were roughly making what our captains were in each respective piece of equipment. So they knew at that time that had a concessionary contract coming. AA on the other hand has had an industry lagging contract since before UA's big jump in 2000. We then sold the farm to stay out of BK in 2003. No contract for 4+ years...and now this piece of crap to put us even further behind our peers? Can you see how we are less than enthused???

 

Exactly. The APA pilot group had their balls handed to them with the sickout SNAFU, and by Bill Clinton. It'll pass.

 

Delta's BK TA was after the original 32% pay cut. In BK we got the additional 14% cut which we voted highly in favor of....so yes we get the pain you are feeling. I wish you the best of luck!

 

And by fear you mean the loss of job, look what just happened a few days ago, I don't think AMR has any plans to boot pilots any time soon since their schedule requires them to recall FA even with their proposed new work rules. AA has begun the recall process for pilots, it was a small number but it seems that AA doesn't plan to reduce the schedules much more if at all.

23JUL12/1315
TO: ALL FLIGHT ATTENDANTS
RE: CANCELLATION OF OLOA EFFECTIVE AUGUST 14, 2012
.
EARLIER THIS YEAR, THE COMPANY OFFERED VOLUNTARY LEAVES TO FA‡S IN AN EFFORT TO AVOID FA FURLOUGHS AS A RESULT OF SCHEDULE REDUCTIONS. AS WE CONSIDER OUR SCHEDULING NEEDS FOR THE FALL MONTHS, WE HAVE MORE LIMITED CREW FLEXIBILITY THAN WE BELIEVE IS PRUDENT. TO ENSURE WE CAN CONTINUE TO PROVIDE OUR CUSTOMERS RELIABLE SERVICE, WE HAVE DECIDED TO CANCEL OVERAGE LEAVES EFF. AUGUST 14, 2012. FA‡S CURRENTLY ON OVERAGE LEAVE HAVE BEEN ADVISED VIA CERTIFIED MAIL THAT THEIR LEAVE HAS BEEN CANCELLED AND WILL BE REQUIRED TO RETURN TO ACTIVE DUTY EFFECTIVE AUG 15, 2012

American Airlines cancels overage leaves for flight attendants as of Aug. 15 | Airline Biz Blog

So AMR is reporting "profits", outpacing the competition in revenue growth, generating revenue almost as high as the big 2 all while being smaller, recalling FA after threatening with 2,300 layoff. The FA will not complete voting until Oct 19th, well past the deadline imposed by the judge, odds are he will delay his ruling further.

 

The only thing I can think of when I hear mgt use the phrase, "Last Best Final Offer", is an impotent mother wagging her finger at her unruly, undisciplined child while counting to three. Not saying the pilot group is unruly or anything, just that the company seems to be touting this thing in hopes of striking fear in all of APA. I say stand strong and vote NO!