Plan A was AA+JB until Parker went behind the back of the BOD and jammed his way into a US+AA merger.

 

Good point. Plan A actually failed many times prior to Parker/Kirby taking over AA.

AA management (prior to Parker & Kirby) tried merging with JB a few times. JB resisted & refused AA’s internal offers publicly somewhat in a embarrassing way. David Barger CEO JB essentially said Hell No to offers. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yOM6csohc5c

Then US Air saw AA in its weakness made public offers to buy AA. AA tried to resist. Parker/Kirby then went the aggressive route, gained support from AA Pilots & Flight Attendant Unions. Very public declaration of support given to Parker/Kirby & US Airways taking over AA management by the Pilots, FA’s and other AA employee groups. The campaign was successful US Air management executed the merger with AA in BK & put Humpty Dumpty (AA) back together. PIT shrunk, NY (JFK/LGA) shrunk, BOS shrunk, DFW grew leaps and bounds.



Looking back, Dave Barger was right all along.

 

Plan A was a hostile takeover of Delta. Huge battle in the news for months. Parker than turned to American after losing the Delta takeover attempt.

 

It seems a major factor in the differences may well have been how the employee groups reacted. The Delta employees launched their own campaign against being taken into the mess that was the America West / USAir integration while the American employees begged for it.

 

That’s not the whole reason but it sure did give them a boost.

 

Parker was very arrogant during the Delta takeover attempt and assumed money would trump everything. He basically said up front that the Delta management team would be sacked along with over 25% of the employees by grounding the entire MD88 fleet to start.
He was much more careful with how he ran his mouth during the American takeover. Maybe he was drinking less during that timeframe.

 

Using smaller airplanes that they can't get yet to reduce revenue. 🥴😖

 

https://www.areadevelopment.com/newsItems/12-13-2019/breeze-aviation-salt-lake-utah.shtml

 

Here’s an interesting and somewhat related read on a lawsuit vs. Neeleman happening currently in CT:

https://www.flightglobal.com/airlines/jetlines-sues-neeleman-for-27m-alleges-financing-interference/135520.article

 

Anybody want to start guessing the name of the airline? I’m going with Ethos