A350s For Us And Awa

[luvthe9]

US Airways close to $1bn in new financing

CHICAGO (Financial Times) - America West and US Airways are finalising details of a wide-ranging financing package that could provide more than $1bn in new financing for their proposed merger, including up to $500m in equity, helping to address fears about their weak balance sheets.
Details could emerge as early as this week. The two airlines are seeking three or four equity investors who would put in $125m each. The preliminary list includes Air Canada, Par Capital, a leading financial investor in America West, and Air Wisconsin, a regional partner, according to several people involved in the talks.

US Airways, Amer West Hope To Announce Merger

By Susan Carey

Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) - US Airways Group Inc. (UAIRQ) and America West Holdings Corp. (AWA) hope to announce a merger later this week and are in advanced negotiations with potential equity investors to raise as much as $400 million, according to people close to the situation.

The two carriers also are closing in on a $250 million loan from Airbus (ABI.YY) in return for placing an order for about 20 of the jetliner producer's new A350 model, people close to the situation said. An order would give Airbus its first North American customer for the A350, which is intended to compete with rival Boeing Co.'s (BA) new 787 Dreamliner.

REMAINDER DELETED - POST THE LINK

 

[coolflyingfool]

I would truly be surprised to see the AWA/US merger come through with an A350 order very soon after getting together. I think there is a chance to see more A330s come through, but not a new aircraft. I know the A330 and A350 will carry the same cockpit rating, but I don't see anything new on the property until at least 2 years after the merger is completed. Just my thoughts..............and certainly not 20 of them.

 

[autofixer]

The A350 is not due out until 2010. Airbus wants a US launch customer for the machine.

 

[JetClipper]

I think the overriding question on everyone’s mind is, “where would the combined airline use these airplanes?â€￾ Under “Uncle Edâ€￾ America West proved that they are not a transpacific player, and the A350 doesn’t strike me as a US-Europe aircraft (maybe west coast-Europe, but even that seems a little too short).

 

[DCAflyer]

I would truly be surprised to see the AWA/US merger come through with an A350 order very soon after getting together. I think there is a chance to see more A330s come through, but not a new aircraft. I know the A330 and A350 will carry the same cockpit rating, but I don't see anything new on the property until at least 2 years after the merger is completed. Just my thoughts..............and certainly not 20 of them.

[post="269975"][/post]​

The A350 is basically an A330 with greater range and cargo capabilities. The flight deck is the same.

 

[ClueByFour]

I think the overriding question on everyone’s mind is, “where would the combined airline use these airplanes?â€￾ Under “Uncle Edâ€￾ America West proved that they are not a transpacific player, and the A350 doesn’t strike me as a US-Europe aircraft (maybe west coast-Europe, but even that seems a little too short).

[post="270175"][/post]​

PHL-NRT? LAS/PHX-Europe? Maybe (huge maybe) PHL or CLT to HNL.

Other than that, I can't think of much. The 332 and 333 do just fine to Europe from the east coast.

 

[whlinder]

I too have wondered where 20 A350s are going to fly. US still has their A330-200s on order, so those will be replacing the 767-200s. All the A350 routes would be new, and if this airlines isn't in a major alliance I have no idea where these planes would fly.

 

[UseYourHead]

Should the merger go through I would not be surprised to see additional A330-200's come online to fill the void so that new rotes could be started.

Adding longhaul flying is one of the synergies that make the merger a compelling scenario, and there are many city pairs that could support this size jet.

I fly the A330 out of PHL and it is FULL to all of the cities we go to, if we had 20-30 more we could fill them pointed in any direction (TransPacific, South America, or Europe).

This is not a 747. rather a BIG Airbus (A330-300 is 261 Pax + crew) and is a great size aircraft for the combined airlines (and an extremely easy transistion for crews-you America West guys will love flying it).

An aircraft order for a newly combined list is also a WONDERFUL developement, as it is a product of the combined airline and would provide new widebody seats to be filled.

All in all, great news!

I would truly be surprised to see the AWA/US merger come through with an A350 order very soon after getting together. I think there is a chance to see more A330s come through, but not a new aircraft. I know the A330 and A350 will carry the same cockpit rating, but I don't see anything new on the property until at least 2 years after the merger is completed. Just my thoughts..............and certainly not 20 of them.

[post="269975"][/post]​

 

[ClueByFour]

Not to ruin things, but my last transatlantic on US was from PHL to LGW and back. On this flight, which I upgraded (and thus could not buy the absolute cheapest fare), I paid a whopping $470 after taxes.

At that rate, filling the planes won't be hard, although making money might be. At U's most recent CASM, that ticket should cost around $700 to break even. Even assuming that the 330 has a specific CASM that's 20% less than the US mainline fleet as a whole, the base fare still has to be $570. This assumes no cargo revenue, of course.

 

[firstamendment]

I too have wondered where 20 A350s are going to fly.  US still has their A330-200s on order, so those will be replacing the 767-200s.  All the A350 routes would be new, and if this airlines isn't in a major alliance I have no idea where these planes would fly.

[post="270371"][/post]​

I think the A350 will replace the aging US 767 fleet, add flights from PHX/LAS to Europe (LGW, MAN, FRA), Hawaii, more east coast flying to Europe from PHL and CLT and South America from all four combined hubs minus maybe Vegas. If you replace the 767's alone, there goes 9 of the 20, and U wants to continue it's European expansion.
BTW, AWA employees, I do think the opportunities for aviation lovers is there for the taking. I welcome anyone , senior to me or not, to come east and enjoy flying to Europe and the few Caribbean layovers we have. To me, if this happens, we must act as a team and I will respect your right to bump me down. Just treat me the same.

Also, you guys out west would probably see A350 flying.


Cheers.

 

[whlinder]

Yeah but where do the A330-200 orders go? Otherwise it would make sense to me, partial replacement, partial expansion. Unless those 330-200s aren't coming it looks like complete expansion. And while there are certainly expansion possibilities, I am trying to see 20 planes worth of possibilities. If the 330-200s aren't coming then it makes sense, but I haven't read anything to indicate that they aren't.

 

[tadjr]

Not to ruin things, but my last transatlantic on US was from PHL to LGW and back. On this flight, which I upgraded (and thus could not buy the absolute cheapest fare), I paid a whopping $470 after taxes.

[post="270498"][/post]​

Just sold 3 GLA-FLL tickets for Jul/Aug travel. Cheapest was a child fare at about $860, most expensive was regular adult at $1160. $120 was taxes, the rest was $income. Looks like you got a bargain!

Re the 350s. The info I could find shows 2 versions for 245/285 seating (it doesnt state whether that is all coach or a mixed configuration of some kind.) Current 767s have total 202 and 330s have 261 so there isnt that much of a difference capacity wise depending on final configuration. We currently are running 2 planes (767 and 330) daily PHL-FRA and in the past have done the same PHL-CDG/LGW so there is a possibility for more lift. They would also be nice for added lift in season to Florida/Caribbean instead of running hourly 737s. There is also an untapped market for Star in Germany-Florida flights. Many Germans spend a month or so here and MCO/TPA/FLL/RSW/MIA could all be possible cities. (BA and VS run flights to London with conx so Star conx should be a possibility via FRA or MUC as well). You also have BMI in MAN which could probably handle a CLT-MAN flight (and maybe Florida as well) and we arent even tapping in to Swiss in ZRH or SAS in CPH/STK/OSL. Now throw PHX and LAS traffic (with West coast conx) to Europe and you have some more possible routes. All of South America is open to possibilities as well as Asia. Since the planes arent going to even be here until 2010-2012 at the earliest, I'd venture a guess that there will be plenty of markets available to place them in by that time.

 

[eolesen]

A350's would most likely replace the existing 330 orders.

 

[Travelpro72]

The A330's we have on firm order are 200's. Although the A350 is a newer design based on the 330 isn't essentially a different a/c in regards to the job it's designed to do? Capacity may be close to the same but it's to my understanding that the A350 is to be very long range a/c. Possible though. Anything is possible as we all see.

 

[Reservation Agent]

I think the airline will be offering cheap fares to Hawaii on the Airbuses....