snapthis
Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2009
- Messages
- 4,236
- Reaction score
- 6,907
The Winners And Losers Of The US Airways, American Mergernycbusdriver said:Speaking of PHX as a "minor concern," here is an interesting link:
http://www.usairways.com/en-US/Resources/_downloads/aboutus/pressroom/factsheets/factsheet.pdf
Note the Hub Operations box, and see that even DCA (which I thought was a "Focus City," but I guess has had its status upgraded) beats PHX in terms of number of flights, and they do it with less than 1/3 of the employees (admittedly, the PHX number probably includes hangar and HQ personnel) and only 2/3 of the gates.
PHX is already an "also ran," even without taking into consideration the AA operations and hubs. If the New AA can acquire more gates in LAX, it's buh-bye PHX. (PHX employees take special note: PIT and BWI are no longer on the list...a sign of things to come.)
Source: Forbes
Winner: The New American
Its obvious, but the biggest winner here is clearly the merged airline, which got out of the DOJ action relatively unscathed. Yes, the loss of the 44 slot pairs at Washington Reagan is painful to a degree, especially given that Reagan was consistently the most profitable operation for pre-merger US Airways. But to put everything into perspective, the divested slots at Reagan and La Guardia represent less than 0.25% of the merged carriers capacity a drop in the bucket in aggregate. And the gate divestitures and service commitments required by the settlement are all things that the merged carrier would have done anyway with the possible exception of Phoenix (Ill address that below).
Loser: The Department of Justice
Lets be frank; the DOJ settled because it had a weak case. The case was based on spurious reasoning and analysis, as I outlined in my breakdown of the lawsuit and there was a significant chance that DOJ might lose in court, which would be even more catastrophic from their perspective than allowing this merger to continue. Quite simply put, if the DOJ had lost this lawsuit, it would have been effectively powerless to stop future airline industry mergers. By settling here, they at least have a leg to fall back on in prosecuting future mergers, though it will need a much better case.
Winner: Phoenix Sky Harbor
The commitment to maintain all of the pre-merger hubs is mostly a formality, except in the case (potentially) of Phoenix. Some analysts have suggested that Phoenix, which is a low yielding hub with a major competitive presence from Southwest, could get squeezed out in the combined carriers network by Dallas Fort Worth to the east and Los Angeles to the west. At the very least, it was certain that the current operation would have been downsized. (My projection was for about a 33% capacity reduction and a decrease in daily departures to 250 from 300, achieved by flipping the current mainline to regional ratio of 2:1) But now? Well see whether the commitment to maintain the Phoenix hub consistent with historical operations can be enforced by the DOJ. But if it can, it guarantees that Phoenix will stay as a hub for at least three more years. And the interesting undercurrent here is that Southwests costs are rising, which means that the competitive environment in Phoenix could be a whole lot rosier three years from now.
Loser: International Operations at Charlotte Douglas
Because the merger has gone through, much of the international operations at the Charlotte Douglas hub are rendered obsolete. The recent trans-Atlantic expansion was primarily to Star Alliance hubs, which will likely die out when US Airways moves over to one world. Most of the Caribbean flights and the flight to Rio are much better served from the much larger market of Miami. To be clear, Charlotte will not lose its hub. But its post-merger international operation will be much smaller than it is currently.
Loser: nycbusdriver
Is it going to be a working LOA93, non-SnapBack retirement in 800 days? AWE..

View attachment 10263