fit29

No he ran both airlines in different periods of time, and laid the groundwork for the original tie up when he was CEO of US Airways. He is responsible for US' sit back and wait to be bought attitude, which now is exactly what United is up to.

cybourg10

Exclusive: UAL, US Air merger would be all-stock deal: sources
NEW YORK
Fri Apr 9, 2010 6:07pm EDT


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The merger talks between United Airlines (UAUA.O) and US Airways (LCC.N) revolve around doing an all-stock deal, with United paying US Airways shareholders a premium similar to that of the Delta-Northwest (DAL.N) merger, people familiar with the matter said.

Deals

Delta, which bought Northwest in 2008, paid Northwest shareholders a 17 percent premium to the closing price on the day before the announcement.

The two sides have been negotiating break-up fees and reverse break-up fees in the 2 to 6 percent range, to be implemented if either side walks away from the deal.

The companies see more than $1 billion in synergies from a potential deal, the sources said. Issues such as management will be discussed in the coming days, but United Airlines would be the continuing brand, the sources said.

A deal could be sealed in a few weeks, the sources said. But they also cautioned that talks could still fall through or that other airlines could approach either United or US Airways.

(Reporting by Jui Chakravorty, editing by Matthew Lewis)

cactusmike

OK, I'll give a shot at the original premise of the thread.

The DOH of the last active AWA (West) pilot is 6/21/2004. I am not sure what the East seniority is, but I believe that all the East pilots hired since the merger in 2005 are on furlough. That would take them back to around 2000 I believe. I do know that some of the East pilots that were on furlough when the merger took place are still working while the AWA pilots who were working prior to the merger have been furloghed out of seniority (according to the Nicolau award). I have heard UAL has furloughed back to 1999. I have no idea what this means in terms of how a combined list would ever be created from this mess.

Discount USAPA should this go forward. USAPA has burned a lot of bridges with their buddies on the East because of the empty promises they have made and the zero results they have achieved. There are 1800 West pilots who would vote in lockstep with the UAL MEC to prevent any USAPA shenanigans with a combined list. Doug Parker will not even give the USAPA president the time of day so any effect USAPA would have on this would be minimal. The ALPA haters may make noise, and they are on both sides of the operation, but the reality is that adult supervision is needed and ALPA will be the only chance at that going forward. Prater is done this fall anyway, and he was and is a lightning rod for much of the critcism we had for the way ALPA treated AWA during the merger process.

Personally, I think this deal is never going to work. I will be happy to eat my words but I think it is just a smokescreen to get CAL to sh## or get off the pot. Neither UAL or US are shining examples of operational excellence and fiscal responsibility. Combining both together without a true airline leader would be suicide. This is a deal that is structured to gain immediate profits by the wall street types and nothing beyond that.

Zapata

Lighten up, Francis.

In your infinite wisdom, please enlighten us on why you think most US Airways Easties are bad and dishonest.

(that was a rhetorical question, so don't answer that....you'd remove what little doubt is left)

BTW; I am glad that you "assured" me. Now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Scoop

All this talk of potential mergers and who could or would provide lift and feed etc. is extremely amusing. Its almost as if some people on here actually believe that Tilton and Parker actually care about running an airline. Ha!

The only thing these guys want to do is work some Wall street magic, collect their "hard earned" millions, and get the Hell out of town. I think they could give two craps about the labor train wreck this potential merger might cause or even long term damage to the stockholders.

Maybe Doug Parker should try running an airline for a change, but where is the glory in that? Every MBA wannabe worth his salt knows true Wall Street adulation awaits only the master of the universe who can put together the "golden deal" to make the big bucks, not the hardworking visionary who actually creates something of value for employees, passengers and stockholders.

Scoop

Riddler

Let me get this straight...
For the past 10 years, the only way for airlines to become profitable was to SHRINK. So UAL goes from 10,000+ pilots to about 5,000.

Now, the only way for airlines to become profitable is to MERGE and EXPAND?

The only thing that Tilton and Parker want is to put a 3 groups of stark raving mad pilots at each others throats and to fight each other while the CEOs walk away with millions. They'll do their best to convince the pilots that the only way the merged company can survive is if they take further pay cuts and give up 100 seat scope.

cactusmike

Scoop - I think you hit it right on the head. I don't see Parker or Tilton as people who are capable of providing leadership and vision.

AWA always succeeded in spite of management, not because of it. Once Parker did the US Air deal he became part of the high cost, low yield legacy model and he could not figure out how to cut the costs back to the low cost AWA model.

Fritzthepilot

Because the CAL pilots want to avoid UAL almost as much as UAL wants to stay away from AAA. It appears ACL might be correct.

contrail67

I stopped reading when you posted that UAL went to about 5000 pilots...you obviously are misinformed.

Tony Nelson

You mean like CAL in the 90'S?