article on www.justplanenews.com AA's CFO says so far so good the integration is going smoothly of course they do hope to get the FAA single carrier certificate in late 1st quarter or early 2nd quarter
AA's CFO says Integration going well
- Thread starter robbedagain
- Start date
WeAAsles
Veteran
- Oct 20, 2007
- 22,439
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TheStreet) -- The union representing US Airways pilots said it has reached a tentative deal on a protocol agreement with the union representing American (AAL_) pilots on a process for seniority integration of the two pilot groups.
If the deal is approved by the 11-member board of the U.S. Airline Pilots Association, which will meet Thursday and Friday, USAPA would rapidly cease to collect dues but it would not cease to exist.
http://www.thestreet.com/story/12866433/1/american-air-and-us-airways-pilots-reach-tentative-deal-on-seniority.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO
If the deal is approved by the 11-member board of the U.S. Airline Pilots Association, which will meet Thursday and Friday, USAPA would rapidly cease to collect dues but it would not cease to exist.
http://www.thestreet.com/story/12866433/1/american-air-and-us-airways-pilots-reach-tentative-deal-on-seniority.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO
Which article?robbedagain said:
I've posted this before - I don't care which news aggregation site you frequent - but why not post links to the actual articles you discuss? Your post is like someone saying - I saw an article linked on huffingtonpost.com or yahoo or googlenews or I saw a billboard on my way home from work.
Why not post a link to the actual news article you're talking about? Why the cryptic "go search for the article I'm talking about yourself" posts?
OP
This one?
http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2014/09/american-airlines-cfo-says-early-integration-going-well-with-us-airways-comments-on-wright-amendment-impact.html/
Kerr is an idiot.
"Restore American to the greatest airline in the world?" By cutting premium meals on the AA side? Dumbass.
http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2014/09/american-airlines-cfo-says-early-integration-going-well-with-us-airways-comments-on-wright-amendment-impact.html/
Kerr is an idiot.
"Restore American to the greatest airline in the world?" By cutting premium meals on the AA side? Dumbass.
It's funny how focused folks are on meals - employees want paid more, customers want low fares, etc and meal service does not really influence domestic flying (not lots of people pay SW to fly cross country with out a meal)
So in the grand scheme of things the meal change is minor
So in the grand scheme of things the meal change is minor
OP
You're discounting and leaving out an important segment of domestic passengers who never fly Southwest: Premium cabin meals on domestic flights are served to passengers who buy international long-haul premium cabin tickets but who connect at a hub. Either their origin or destination is someplace other than an international gateway.jcw said:
Same fundamental reason that first class cabins on large RJs is a necessity: Very few Indianapolis to Chicago passengers are going to buy a first class ticket for that very short flight, so aren't those first class cabins just wasted money? No, because once Delta and US began outfitting their large RJs with first class cabins, AA and UA had to follow suit in order to keep the international connecting passengers happy and onboard. The reason the IND-ORD E175 features F seats is to attract the business person from overseas who is buying business or first class fares - so they'll pick AA. If AA kept on flying single class ERJ145s on that route, then the overseas executive would pick UA or DL instead. Same thing in reverse. The Eli Lilly corporate travelers going overseas have a choice, and you're not going to sell them a business class ticket if their first segment is in economy.
If meals don't impact revenue, then why did USeless Airways add meals to dozens of flights this past spring? If meals don't impact revenue, then isn't that wasted money?
Bottom line: Even with AA's generous meal policies (now slashed by Hatchet Man Hector, new AA earned $1.9 billion in the first half of 2014, excl special items. Why eff with what's working? To save a few nickels on meals? That's the Parker/Kirby/Kerr way, after all. Figures that their apologists would show up here to defend their decisions.
WorldTraveler
Corn Field
- Dec 5, 2003
- 21,709
- 10,721
FWAAA,
your analogy has to consider that IND-ORD compete with IND-ATL or IND-DFW for domestic connecting traffic. IND-ATL and IND-DFW are long enough to have local demand that would be interested in a first class seat - including but not only to connect to int'l flights.
As for why FC exists on regional jets, the reason is because carriers want to create a "seamless" product between their regional and mainline flights... but, more pragmatically, pilot contracts generally limit seats on regional carriers to 76 seats and the CR9 and E175 could hold more than that if they were configured in all coach. Thus, airlines want to have a unified product regardless of the aircraft type - or paint that image anyway - but they also would be carrying around empty space or have to use smaller aircraft if they did not put FC cabins in. The proportion of FC seats on the CR9 and Ejets is generally higher than on mainline aircraft.
I don't think that anyone is arguing that FC including some type of meals are not worth it (I'm not).
The question is whether AA's FC service was overly generous in comparison with the competition and AA leadership thought it was. If AA was offering a product that cost more to operate than its competitors, then there should be evidence the product is generating more revenue.
In the case of US, they got by with less than industry average FC service and AA (former US) execs are paying for upgrading the US product with cuts to AA or tapping into AA's premium revenue - something that was obviously going to happen when the merger was announced.
Just for curiosity, what really is your alternative? Some might say they will go to Virgin America but is that really an alternative for very many AA passengers? Their premium cabins are not very large and are being filled as it is - on top of their fairly limited route system.
your analogy has to consider that IND-ORD compete with IND-ATL or IND-DFW for domestic connecting traffic. IND-ATL and IND-DFW are long enough to have local demand that would be interested in a first class seat - including but not only to connect to int'l flights.
As for why FC exists on regional jets, the reason is because carriers want to create a "seamless" product between their regional and mainline flights... but, more pragmatically, pilot contracts generally limit seats on regional carriers to 76 seats and the CR9 and E175 could hold more than that if they were configured in all coach. Thus, airlines want to have a unified product regardless of the aircraft type - or paint that image anyway - but they also would be carrying around empty space or have to use smaller aircraft if they did not put FC cabins in. The proportion of FC seats on the CR9 and Ejets is generally higher than on mainline aircraft.
I don't think that anyone is arguing that FC including some type of meals are not worth it (I'm not).
The question is whether AA's FC service was overly generous in comparison with the competition and AA leadership thought it was. If AA was offering a product that cost more to operate than its competitors, then there should be evidence the product is generating more revenue.
In the case of US, they got by with less than industry average FC service and AA (former US) execs are paying for upgrading the US product with cuts to AA or tapping into AA's premium revenue - something that was obviously going to happen when the merger was announced.
Just for curiosity, what really is your alternative? Some might say they will go to Virgin America but is that really an alternative for very many AA passengers? Their premium cabins are not very large and are being filled as it is - on top of their fairly limited route system.
Exactly. The legacy US pilots and FAs are now costing about $300 million more per year under their current contracts than they cost in 2012, and it's possible that Parker has to give them more in a new joint CBA. And that doesn't include Agents (who will likely all be unionized), fleet service or mechanics, all of whom are probably expecting and demanding significant increases to make up for all their years of sacrifice - like "restore and more." When all is said and done, new AA will have several hundred million a year in increased labor costs, and something has to pay for those higher costs.WorldTraveler said:
What's my alternative? Sit back and watch Parker make cuts that his toadies have told him won't hurt the revenue goose and laugh at him when UA's and DL's revenues grow faster than new AA's. Which alternative airline to fly? There are still several choices.
WorldTraveler
Corn Field
- Dec 5, 2003
- 21,709
- 10,721
true... and the "source" of that revenue in the merger is the increased domestic revenue because US acquired its number one target for domestic price cuts.
Obviously, only a very few people in the world know the formula Parker and co. used, but they bet that increased costs would be offset by increased revenues as a result of a stronger pricing environment. US would gain as part of a larger network while some degree of rationalization of the networks would take place. Most of that rationalization so far has involved winter seasonal cuts with only a few year round route cuts so far.
The whole Envoy situation is in meltdown mode which Parker can accelerate as fast as he wants - which helps to allow some AA/US mainline capacity to be used to backfill Envoy and other RJ carrier cuts.
Product cuts are painful for loyal passengers like you. but consolidation was certain to involve a certain "commoditization" of the industry. Face it... AA, DL, and UA will have very similar networks (+/-) and the service levels will become more and more alike. The pay differences between workers at different airlines will narrow - as mgmt. at all of the large airlines find it harder and harder to justify being significantly above or below the average.
As for DL and UA's revenues, I think the biggest factor is going to be true operational reliability. UA has done a very good job of coming back from the brink. They still have a lot of issues to work thru but it is also very possible that AA will face many of the same issues when they reach the same point that UA is at right now.
The next year plus will be very interesting in the industry and at AA as integration really moves to the more difficult phases...
Obviously, only a very few people in the world know the formula Parker and co. used, but they bet that increased costs would be offset by increased revenues as a result of a stronger pricing environment. US would gain as part of a larger network while some degree of rationalization of the networks would take place. Most of that rationalization so far has involved winter seasonal cuts with only a few year round route cuts so far.
The whole Envoy situation is in meltdown mode which Parker can accelerate as fast as he wants - which helps to allow some AA/US mainline capacity to be used to backfill Envoy and other RJ carrier cuts.
Product cuts are painful for loyal passengers like you. but consolidation was certain to involve a certain "commoditization" of the industry. Face it... AA, DL, and UA will have very similar networks (+/-) and the service levels will become more and more alike. The pay differences between workers at different airlines will narrow - as mgmt. at all of the large airlines find it harder and harder to justify being significantly above or below the average.
As for DL and UA's revenues, I think the biggest factor is going to be true operational reliability. UA has done a very good job of coming back from the brink. They still have a lot of issues to work thru but it is also very possible that AA will face many of the same issues when they reach the same point that UA is at right now.
The next year plus will be very interesting in the industry and at AA as integration really moves to the more difficult phases...
