It went bye bye when oil started to spike. The company is clearly interested in growing the company into profitable routes but, the problem for you, is these are in the East.
You should be compensating the East for propping up the money loser West.
Funny how the other LCC's have continued to make money and hire pilots over the past 3 years.
A few other things are funny. I don't remember seeing anybody else interested on getting their hands on your mountain of gold over there while you were in your first or second bankruptcy. We almost bought ATA a few years ago, and I remember there being quite a bidding war going on for them. In fact, that's why Parker put the kabosh on that idea, and instead went after an airline that nobody else was willing to put up money for. Some of the 1989 AAA hires that came here after their 2nd furlough certainly didn't benefit much from that cash cow, after spending more time on furlough since they were hired than actually flying the line as US Airways pilots. In fact, most of those guys moved here as they never planned to see themselves to get recalled. Maybe they couldn't see the obvious fact that both of those bankruptcies were orchestrated with the sole purpose of hiding what a money-maker US Airways really is.
In fact, ALPA conspired with US Airways to have both of those bankruptcies, and the near miss with liquidation, just so that they could collect less dues revenues from you and provide you with the ammunition to kick them off of property. It was quite an orchestration though - they convinced wall street, investment banking firme, bankruptcy courts, and even your CLT reps that the company was really in dire straits. We were in on it too you know. 20 years ago, when we all were in junior high school, we wanted to be airline pilots, but didn't want to have to WAIT to upgrade to captain. So we all decided then that we were going to want YOUR captain seats someday, and the best way to do that was to get hired at a different airline, conspire with our union to bankrupt you, coerce you into agreeing to binding arbitration with a senile arbitrator who would agree with us that date-of-hire is not in ALPA Merger Policy. Once we can coerce you into agreeing to a contract that will give you 40%+ increases in pay, then the 1500 of us who live in California, Arizona, and Nevada, can uproot our families, move East, and fulfill our 20-year dream of occupying YOUR captain seat.
In reality, we showed up to this deal, played by the rules, and now you guys want to remove OUR bargaining agent (because you can) and impose your will on us (because you can). Sounds fair to me. BTW - plan on having a REALLY hard time getting away with that
🙂
Oh - one other thing - I know these financial arguments go back and forth alot, and really they don't produce much. But if it makes you feel better, Nicolau didn't agree with the America West view of the word. I doubt you ever read the award, so let me past the pertinent section:
Of considerable importance is the question of career
expectations. As previously stated, America West argues that the
career expectations of the US Airways pilots were nil; that if the
airline was not a failing carrier saved from certain liquidation by its
purchase by America West, it was so close as to make little difference.
On the other hand, America West, in the view of its pilots, was robust
and on its way to sustained achievement. The US Airways pilots argue
that neither description fits the facts. In their view, US Airways,
though in bankruptcy for the second time, had lowered its costs and
secured additional investment capital ensuring its survival and
prospects of emerging from bankruptcy. Beyond this, as shown by
repeated post-merger statements by America West's CEO and by
expert analysis, that airline was also in poor financial condition.
Thus, both airlines needed each other and both have benefited from
the merger. The US Airways pilots assert that this, as well as cases it
cites as precedent, argue for the proposition that the financial picture
of the two airlines was relatively the same and, as such, should not
even be considered.
Our view is that neither picture is persuasive. The US Airways
reliance on post-merger statements by America West's CEO, clearly
made to assuage growing concerns of America West pilots who had
seen a post-merger end to hiring, an increasing return of longfurloughed
US Airways pilots and a flattening in their own
advancement, 'is misplaced. Equally so is America West's insistence
that US Airways was about to disappear.
Yet, it cannot be disputed
that there were differences in the financial condition of both carriers
and that US Airways was the weaker. This necessarily means that
career expectations differed and that US Airways pilots had more to
gain from the merger than their new colleagues.
