Same old, same old. Everyone thinks that if the company can sell off AE the APA's scope clause goes away. Not so. As I understand it, it doesn't matter who is operating the regional feeder flights. They can not have a/c with more than 50 seats, other than the 70-seaters that AE already has. Anything else with more than 50 seats must be flown by APA mainline pilots.
AA/JB merger/acquisition/mosh pit/whatever? Why would AMR take on a fleet of a/c that is completely different from what they already have? JB is all Airbus except for the E-190 (see above).
AA/US Airways? Please. AMR management may be crazy, but they ain't stupid. Most of the US Airways employees I know think that AMR is lusting after the CLT operation because "we have no Southeastern U.S. hub" (MIA is about as South and East as you can go without getting your feet wet). They seem to think that we are going to rescue them from the train wreck that is their last, and still unfinished, merger.
Aside from the fact that despite two or three attempts to establish a hub in the Southeast--BNA and RDU--AMR has managed to get along thus far. I know that every flight I work into/out of CLT is jam-packed full...and people left at the gate at departure. Seems to me that if AA wanted more CLT presence, they would have no problem getting it. Besides, taking on CLT also means taking on PHL and PHX. Why?
Can you imagine the mess that combining the US Airways f/a corps with ours would be? For starters, they have a combined corps--none of this domestic vs. international foolishness that we have. They have straight reserve--you are either a lineholder (I think they call it blockholder) or you are a reserve. I don't see their senior people agreeing to going back to 3 months reserve every year--which would be the case considering that relatively speaking PHL is as senior for them as DFW is for us, and we have people with well over 20 years still having to serve reserve at DFW.
If US Airways pilots have not managed to come to agreement on a combined seniority list after 5 years, what makes anyone think that another merger will solve that problem? The mind boggles. :blink:
