AWA pilots to benefit with Merger?
 

US Airways' average pilot is in his 50's. Lots of retirements there in the coming 5-10 years. US Airways also has international flying with its widebody B767-200's and A330's, and a higher pay structure to match. Would this not translate into a potentially good deal for AWA pilots? Certainly a seat lock would prevent senior AWA captains from being bumped to F/O while the U oldtimers are still there.

So if I'm an AWA pilot: Lots of retirements on the other guy. Future widebody flying on the other guy. Higher widebody pay on the other guy.

Not a bad deal, perhaps??

One thing we all must understand is AAA is hurting really bad. AWA is just hanging on and it very well could be a train wreck. It's like a fat woman in the middle of a deep lake unable to swim. The skinny lifegaurd jumps in to save her and she grabs his neck as they sink to the bottom.

It sounds as if the deal will go through. One thing for certain is labor will bump heads rather hard to fight for what little they have left in this very s h i t t y industry.

Cheers
Shlong :confused: :confused: :confused:

What's the sentiment over there at AWA pilot ranks??? The merger seems like a done deal.

I'd be worried if I were a Cactus driver- This could be one big BOHICA operation.

Yeah, we are not happy about this one. We are actually doing pretty well, made money last quarter and we had been hiring. Operationally we have had record load factors and an increase in yield. Not SWA numbers, but better than most. So now you have us taking on a dead duck, with lots of baggage attatched. The route systems would match ok, the fleets are very compatible, but the people? Whoa Nelly!

The culture issue is the kicker. How do you tell a 25 or 30 year employee at AAA that they've done it all wrong all these years and you have to do it our way. I'm not talking flight deck procedures, I haven't been on a USAir jumpseat in a long time but we have very simple checklists and rely on flows to do our thing. We are a lot like SWA in that regard. I remember talking to a PSA pilot after the merger and he was bitter that the USAir people forced Piedmont and PSA to dump all their procedures without any input whatsoever. Instead of being open to new ideas it was USAir or nothing. That attitude would kill this deal. The low cost model is what we have been doing all along at AWA due to our neighbors across the terminal at PHX. We know how to make this work. The biggest disadvantage we have is we don't have a people person leading this company. Parker knows numbers, he and his staff don't manage people very well. Gordon Bethune, where are you?

UsAir is pretty much dead without some deal. If this goes 60 airplanes from the combined fleet will go. AAA is in CH11. You can get rid of airplanes very easily while in CH 11. There will be no merger until USAir comes out of Ch 11. So you can see that there will be cuts in the pilot force somewhere, and it doesn't look like it will come from PHX. All this is BS until they announce the deal. Then the ALPA merger policy clock starts and the seniority lists get exchanged and then you see the fur fly. It will probably go to a ratio with some kind of fence for the remaining USAir pilots. We have no one on furlough, they have 1900 with more coming. This won't be pretty.