you forgot about the multi billion dollar balloon loan that was due which effectively meant piedmont (great company) was on fiscally shaky ground going forward (gee where have i heard that term). Norfolk and Southern refused to pay the loan, NCNB did not want to refiance the terms. the clock was ticking but it was years away. the changing landscape at the time saw AMR purchase AirCal to be used against the recently (at that time) announced western expansion of SWA which was just completing its only acqusition of Morris Air. and yes TWA was in trouble then and needed to buy assets of another company (typical carl ichan) in order to keep that deal (twa survival ...due to TOO MUCH DEBT) alive. a very very late hostile takeover of U was announced with the only short term quick answer was to not only buy PI but to do so at a premium to prevent ICHAN from buying the larger entity at a later date, thus U offered PI a 1.0billion dollar premium, which was accepted. so from that point saddled with an additional billion of debt and as was pointed out, U increased the wages of every PI job thus increasing costs across the board. by the time this began to gel this would put in early in the 90s the US was entering a recession and with in months would be at war with IRAQ seeing OIL exceed 50 dollars per barrel (today it is 38 for comparisson).
