American/USAir-why not now?

[silverbird007]

It doesn't bother me in the least when someone makes a statement of fact. Fact: DL is doing very well. Fact #2: AMR is in bankruptcy. Whether or not I like either of those facts is immaterial. They are both still facts. Instead of getting your knickers in a twist, may I suggest that you go up to the upper right hand corner of this screen. Right next to your screen name is a small dropdown arrow. Click on that. One of the choices in the drop down will be Manage my Ignore List. Click on that. Add WorldTraveler to your ignore list. You never have to even look at, much less read, one of his posts ever again. Problem solved.

Ok Im going to block Worldtravelers post's Thanks for the info. Kinda sick of hearing about Delta Delta Delta, if i want to hear about Delta Ill go to the delta forum! Whoever you are Worldtraveler we dont care about Delta get over yourself. go to the delta forum. You must be retired or unemployed to spend so much time on AA forums talking Delta Delta Delta. Damn do you have time to have a life? nevermind I dont care just Shut The F**k up. Get a life, ANYTHING just go away. Delta is just another airline, maybe doing good this week, maybe not next week! I DONT CARE! Anyway im blocking all your boring, 500 word posts. Dont go away mad, just go away!

 

[silverbird007]

It worked! All of WTs post are gone from my forum pages!!!! That was easy, they just disappeared! Now we can have an AA forum without %80 Delta Delta Delta!!!!! I use Delta occasionally but its ok, I also fly LH and BA in Europe, no comparison, so get over yourself! you are a 3rd rate carrier just like AA and US, I think UA is a notch above you! Give me your address and Ill send you a pacifier! I work for AA but my partner works for UA so I know whats good and whats ok! Delta is ok, thats it! The network is better with NWs Asia network. but your 2 class cabins just dont compare! sorry but it is what it is! Good Luck! you will need it. When AA gets out of BK look out. The el cheapo US pax will always fly the one thats 10 cents cheaper so look out and go ahead and bend over (assuming you work for DL) if not just get proffesional help, and good luck!!

 

[ContUNITEus]

I don't think he can read your post if you blocked him.... So no need for you to go on about him or Delta either. :blush: I know what you are saying though....

 

[A320 Driver]

Why is it that no one wants to grasp one of the basic issues here? Parker has sold the AA unions a bill of goods, and they are apparently ignoring the truth or just plain ignorant (no offense intended). I understand you hate your current management and would love to see them gone, but to take Parker and US is a mistake. He has no intention of giving you a better deal--just look at US today-the lowest paid employees in the industry, labor trouble equal to or greater than just about any other airline (7 years NO contract for pilots, and Parker is happy because he is saving money), flight attendant deal rejected, 2 pilot groups practically at war with each other...come on folks, if you think things will be better under Parker and US you are sadly mistaken.

That said, a combination might work with an entirely new management team, but I urge the AA unions to talk privately with their counterparts at US and learn the truth.

Excellent post. What we have over here is a train wreck and it gets worse every day. We put up good performance numbers though. It's easy really. Want your on-time perfomance to go up? Increase the block time. Want your lost bag numbers to improve? Buy the gadgets that rampers use to keep up with the bags. Want your management salaries to go up? Tie them to these performance numbers. Things are bad at AA, but on your worst day, it's better than what we deal with over here. The brass hates us...and it shows.

Driver...

 

[john john]

Want your on-time perfomance to go up? Increase the block time. Want your lost bag numbers to improve? Buy the gadgets that rampers use to keep up with the bags.

Driver...

Contract out flying to express carriers so you don’t have to report the stats

 

[Kev3188]

I don't think he can read your post if you blocked him.... So no need for you to go on about him or Delta either. :blush: I know what you are saying though....

AFAIK, blocking is a one-way street... You no longer see what the person writes, but they can still see what you post...

 

[WorldTraveler]

AFAIK, blocking is a one-way street... You no longer see what the person writes, but they can still see what you post...

you got that one right, Kev... I still see EVERYTHING... because, even though some may choose to not read my posts, I will continue to respond based on the conversation.


But the real conversation gets to the heart of the issue which is that there have been AA employees and fans on this and other boards who, for years, have thought that AA could just quietly sit on the sidelines and have its strategic brain freezes and operational meltdowns and would return to the stage when AA was ready and just pick up where they left off.


Airline industry history is full of airlines that believed the same thing. The reason why the low fare carriers grew so rapidly post 9/11 is because the network/legacy airlines were PARALYZED yet the LFCs grew enormously and the tide as a whole has not turned back in the legacy carriers’ favor. But not all legacy airlines have suffered the same degree of competitive losses at the hands of LFCs… AA and US combined have closed more hubs and lost more of the local market to other carriers than all other legacy carriers before them combined.


The industry is now in the phase where some network/legacy carriers are turning their focus on gaining market share from other network carriers and are succeeding at doing so. RDU was a former AA hub. DL is now the dominant carrier at RDU in terms of local passengers and revenue. DL now has 90% of the seats at PIT and STL as the legacy carriers who previously hubbed there. DL is now mounting a hub operation at LGA, just yards away from AA’s former headquarters where DL now flies to nearly every market that every other carrier serves from LGA and, in the case of AA, has as many seats in the local market except to a couple of AA hubs. And in JFK-MIA at times during the past two years, DL has carried more local passengers than AA has; AA has carried more passengers between the two cities overall but funnels many to Latin America.


And DL is just one competitor – but it is the one most like AA and most capable of taking AA’s corporate revenues and high value customers – and DL is succeeding at doing that. B6 and Virgin are doing the same thing in other markets – and there is abundant evidence to show that they are succeeding.


AA’s customers didn’t care the reasons for AA’s operational problems but many did not stick around; AA cut over 7% of its domestic capacity in September and gave many of AA’s customers no choice but to find another ride. Some of those customers will never come back.


I’m sorry if that is news some here don’t want to hear but that has been the reality for the ten years that AA has floundered in restructuring. The rest of the industry is relatively stable in comparison and is more than capable of mounting a spirited assault on AA’s revenues.


Those who don’t want to hear that should probably find another place to participate in chats –such as quilting and crocheting sites.

---

AA just reported its 3rd quarter financials and, even excluding special charges - the majority of which were related to employee severance, AA managed to post less than a 1% operating margin. Factor in those severance payments and AA operated at a loss. AA's reduction in costs were also identical to the small net operating profit they generated. Forty percent of AA's net operating profit came from a reduction in fuel costs.
AA's revenues were up less than one percent... all those above average RASM numbers mean little if capacity is pulled down almost as fast.

http://finance.yahoo...-120000924.html

but I'm sure the pay cuts and the layoffs that are coming will make the numbers work again.
Note that AMR has already dropped 3000 employees year over year.

 

[Kev3188]

you got that one right, Kev... I still see EVERYTHING...

Great. Good for you.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Great. Good for you.

just says that people that choose the path of shutting someone else down just cut themselves out of the conversation.

It also doesn't change the fact that the issues that are being raised are very real, even if some people don't want to hear them.

 

[PITbull]

I’m sorry if that is news some here don’t want to hear but that has been the reality for the ten years that AA has floundered in restructuring. The rest of the industry is relatively stable in comparison and is more than capable of mounting a spirited assault on AA’s revenues.

See, WT, I can see things differently. And this is where ou positions bifercate.

AA did not go into bk like ALL the other legacies, DL included. American Airlines did not want to zero out their stockholders, as the other legacy carriers chose to do with no regard, in order to get the biggest bang for their restructuring under BK PROECTION.

American Airline tried to restructure OUTSIDE BK. If you look at the example of US Airways, who was the FIRST legacy to go into BK post 9/11...they restructured OUTSIDE BK in 2002, but then they saw more benefits going into bk the same year, Aug 10, 2002 to be exact, and restructured again UNDER the protection of their favorite trump card BK. They emerged in March of 2003.
After U emerged, and seeing UNited take their dance into BK, US Airways decided they wanted even more cost savings then their competitor United got, as they wanted the title of the "lowest cost carrier" in the industry... so they went into BK yet again in September 2004, zeroed out the investor stock holders yet a-gain. U finally emerged from BK again in 2005, only to see their other major players like DL and NorthWest go into BK.
So, you see, my friend, it is so evident...AA , had no choice. There is no way any major carrier can truly compete with these now post-bankrupt-consolidated-mega carriers with fuel prices soaring and all over the map from one month to the next, soft economic times not being equal with their competitors with cost savings...

AA now takes s bow temporarily, and goes at it again, this time, restructuring inside BK protection.

When they come out of this...and they certainly will....they will be a force that the other legacies will have to reckon with....

And that won't be pretty for DL/NW, United/CO, nor pathetic US Airways.

Watch how this will turn out...

 

[WorldTraveler]

Pit,
You and I agree on the background facts as we often do but we take very different paths on the outcome because you have adopted the fatalistic mindset of unionized labor at legacy airlines who see only failure at the hands of a number of mgmt teams that have outsmarted labor at their own game. You WRONGLY conclude that no airline employees can win when it is obvious that you come to that conclusion by focusing only on the group of employees that fit your theory.

The simple reality is that labor and mgmt effectively worked together at CO, DL, and WN to build those companies into leaders and continue to do so…. DL and WN continue to outperform their peers and provide more reliable transportation for consumers, better returns for stockholders, and better employment experiences for its employees because labor and mgmt work together; WN does it largely within a union model while DL does it in a predominantly non-union model, but even the unionized pilots at DL have cooperated with mgmt better than unionized pilots have at other carriers. The employees of BOTH companies benefit, regardless of their union status.
That benefit is attributable to the fact that both DL and WN know how to grow revenues, something that LCC has done less than some of its peers, including DL and WN. Consequently even the lowest costs have not translated into superior financial results. Yet, it is PRECISELY the “lowest paid employees held at those levels for the longest period of time possible” strategy that AA is using that allows AA mgmt’s HR strategies to mesh perfectly with Parker’s strategy for his employees.

Thankfully, not all airlines buy that strategy and your failure to focus on who is actually providing positive wage growth and increased employment is why your theory is flawed.

 

[KILOFINAL]

Alaska Air Group is doing very well in the current environment. Now with the new strategy deal with DL vis a vis SEA, they are setting up to compete longterm.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Alaska has long been capable of adapting to the market place and succeeding, despite having their primary hub way in a corner of the country - not an ideal place for a hub. It is precisely that "corner of the country" location that makes SEA ideal for int'l connections - esp. transpac - and which DL is seeking to tap in its efforts to grow its west coast presence.

But ALK also is well regarded for quality and customer loyalty even if they also have done things that have been quite labor unfriendly.

Running a profitable, successful company covers a multitude of sins, even with their own employees.

 

[firedougparker]

Alaska has done a really good job of being great at what they choose to do.

Their example blows a big hole in the argument that US and AA can't stay separate and still compete. Alaska basically forced United out of the west coast north-south market in the last five years. UA flies all RJ's now where it used to fly 757s SEA-LAX. So I don't buy the argument that a merger is necessary for success.

 

[signals]

Firedougparker/signals:

Exactly. And people wonder why we are mad as heck and not going to take it anymore!
______________________________________________________________________

Signals/firedougparker I see you have been at it again. All sorts of comments under both your pathetic aliases. But here you are Quote "We are mad as heck and not going to take it anymore". Does the "WE" in that statement mean that you are actually in the employ of USAirways which in the past you have denied? You are one pathetic poster. At least keep up with the lies you are spewing. As I have stated before if I ever find out who you are I am going to go straight to US management and get you the hell out of here. No one can trust you on the line.

That's fine with me because I DON'T WORK FOR YOUR PATHETIC AIRLINE!