Bought United(UAL)?

[Career Reserve]

I like this part of the article!!!

The HP/US Deal Actually, employees of the former US Airways should have votive candles lit in front of images of Doug Parker. If HP had not decided to take a chance buying an airline system on the other side of the continent, unemployment lines would be a lot longer today in Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Washington, and Philadelphia.

Hummmm?????!!!!!

This was not a purchase, this was a merger of two airlines that needed an infusion of cash from outside investors to remain viable.

 

[Career Reserve]

Las Vegas & Phoenix would have their share in unemployment line too.[/quote]

 

[flyingcat]

I agree........it needs to be UA buying US. At least UA knows how to treat their retirees.

You forget that they need to know how to treat their shareholders and creditors first. Something the new US has done far better than UA has had in the record length bankruptcy.

 

[Fly4Free]

Las Vegas & Phoenix would have their share in unemployment line too.

That's quite true. With the combined resources, both airlines got saved. I heard HP would have eventually filed for bankruptcy.

 

[ClueByFour]

You forget that they need to know how to treat their shareholders and creditors first. Something the new US has done far better than UA has had in the record length bankruptcy.

Umm, you forgot that US smacked it's shareholders, creditors, local taxpayers, and employees twice.

 

[nostradamus]

Who told you this pile of s**t.

First it was NW, what next?

Is there someone who spends time making this up and touring the system so it can spread.

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

 

[USstew23]

Let's hope it's the other way around. Doug and the Al's aren't capable of running a larger airline. Our company is in worse shape than their admmiting...operationally.

Uh, this operation is in the toilet BIG TIME!! I don't even know what to say to these passengers lately all I can do is agree with them.

 

[jetmech01890]

the news is true, all airlines east of the mississippi have merged the new name is airline A the combined aircraft for all will be the zeppelin made in germany

 

[700UW]

Let me clear this up one more time:

How US Airways/America West merger got off the ground
Talks between airlines began in 2003, but didn't get serious until this year
Sunday, May 22, 2005

By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The on-and-off, 18-month courtship between US Airways and America West Airlines finally clicked into place May 12 in Washington, D.C., high above the floor of the MCI Center, where executives from both airlines had gathered in US Airways' skybox to watch a Washington Wizards playoff game.

Just minutes before tip-off, with the din of exploding fireworks filling the arena, US Airways adviser John Luth received an e-mail on his BlackBerry from Air Canada Chief Executive Officer Robert Milton. It confirmed that Air Canada's board had approved an investment in the combined airline -- the final piece of a $1.5 billion financing package needed to make the deal work.

Luth waved his BlackBerry, smiled and gave everyone the news. He congratulated Doug Parker and Bruce Lakefield, the chief executive officers of America West and US Airways, and broad smiles broke out throughout the box.

The merger was on.

Announced a week later at the Tempe, Ariz., headquarters of America West, the agreement between the nation's seventh-and eight-largest airlines paired a twice-bankrupt, East Coast legacy carrier with a younger, smaller, low-cost airline that does much of its flying on the West Coast.

If they can win a slew of antitrust, shareholder and bankruptcy court approvals, US Airways and America West together would surpass discount king Southwest Airlines in size, becoming the No. 6 carrier in the nation. Together, they also could usher in an era of consolidation in the troubled airline industry, which has lost more than $30 billion since 2001.

But there were several twists along the way, according to people familiar with the events. America West was not the only carrier to express interest in US Airways, nor was America West the only partner US Airways pursued.

The search for a deal began in the fall of 2003, when David Siegel was still US Airways' chief executive officer. Siegel had led US Airways through its first bankruptcy and wrested more than $1 billion in concessions from the company's labor unions. But even as the carrier completed a painful round of cost cuts and emerged from bankruptcy, Siegel knew US Airways was still too small and too inefficient to compete against discounters such as Southwest, which had already announced plans to start service in Philadelphia, a US Airways' hub.

Siegel was convinced that for US Airways to avoid the fate of failed carriers such as Eastern Airlines and Pan Am, both of which liquidated in the 1980s, he would have to bring US Airways' costs down further and position the airline for consolidation with another carrier. He explored several options.

Acquire United Airlines, the nation's No. 2 carrier. That option was code-named "Project Minnow," with US Airways as the small fish gobbling the bigger one.

Combine with British entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic, which was interested in US Airways' Washington-Boston-New York shuttle, along with slots and gates in the Northeast.

Split the airline in two and merge the Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C., hub-and-spoke network with one carrier and its slots and gates in Washington, Boston and New York with another.

But US Airways ultimately rejected those options. United did not have any interest in a deal and was too distracted by its own struggles in bankruptcy. Virgin Atlantic wanted lots of US Airways assets -- gates, planes, airport equipment -- to help launch a new U.S. airline, but all it would offer in retrun was the Virgin brand name. US Airways also turned down several inquiries from other carriers -- including Southwest, JetBlue Airways and AirTran Airways -- about acquiring the company's assets but not its employees.

In the end, only America West wanted both.

Siegel made the initial connection. He knew Parker and Executive Vice President Scott Kirby at America West. Their first face-to-face meeting was in October 2003, over dinner in a Washington, D.C., restaurant. They were joined by then-US Airways Chief Financial Officer Neal Cohen.

But the talks ended several months later. At the request of US Airways' board, Siegel departed from the company in April 2004. According to Parker, the first round of discussions failed because US Airways' costs were still too high. Siegel had started a campaign to lower union costs further, but labor leaders refused to deal with him, contributing to his ouster.

Retired Lehman Bros. executive Bruce Lakefield, a friend of US Airways chairman David Bronner, replaced Siegel and sought to save US Airways. He asked unions to help with another round of concessions. When that failed, Lakefield took the company into bankruptcy again and squeezed another $1 billion in concessions from the unions, using the power of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to hammer home new contracts modeled after America West's labor agreements.

In January, with fuel prices at a record high and doubts aired about US Airways' survival after its Christmas baggage meltdown in Philadelphia, Lakefield picked up the phone and called Parker, suggesting that "maybe we should begin those talks again," according to Parker.

But America West did not have enough cash to lift US Airways out of bankruptcy. It was up to Luth, the US Airways adviser, to find enough investment money to piece the deal together and give the combined company a fighting chance to thrive in the battered airline industry.

Luth and US Airways had serious discussions with more than a dozen investors. They all requested shared participation in a merged airline -- no one wanted to take on all the risk. The Retirement Systems of Alabama, which rescued US Airways from its first bankruptcy in 2003 with a $240 million investment, stands to lose it all if US Airways emerges from bankruptcy and issues new stock.

Luth went after the companies that had something to gain from an investment in US Airways and America West. Aircraft maker Airbus agreed to provide $250 million in exchange for US Airways' pledge to buy dozens of A320 jets in the future. Regional commuter carrier Air Wisconsin Airlines made a $125 million investment in exchange for a jet services partnership. The Appleton, Wis.-based airline will fly for the merged carrier on a contract basis.

Credit card companies may provide $300 million in order to reach new customers. And once-bankrupt Air Canada offered $75 million, good for a 7 percent stake in the new company, in exchange for the rights to bid on the maintenance contract for the new carrier's fleet of 361 jets.

Air Canada was the last in line.

Once its approval came last Thursday, employees at both airlines scrambled to obtain approval from their boards of directors. US Airways' directors signed off Wednesday, over the telephone. America West's board approved it Thursday, in Tempe.

Labor leaders were briefed, and a press release was sent out. Parker and Lakefield spent much of Thursday night explaining the deal to reporters before Lakefield took a red-eye flight back to Washington. Parker, who has been tapped to lead the merged airline, met with employees and went home. Before going to bed, he explained the deal in one final live shot with local TV, from his house.

Dan Fitzpatrick

 

[700UW]

Employees gave three rounds of concessions, not two, the first chapter 11 case had two rounds of concessions, not one.

 

[hp_fa]

That's quite true. With the combined resources, both airlines got saved. I heard HP would have eventually filed for bankruptcy.

U was very close to LIQUIDATION. If HP had filed for BK, which I still am not convinced it would have, it would have been a Chapter 11. You know, the same thing U had been doing twice in the past few years.

 

[AL-PS-PI-AW]

U was very close to LIQUIDATION. If HP had filed for BK, which I still am not convinced it would have, it would have been a Chapter 11. You know, the same thing U had been doing twice in the past few years.

You know, the same thing that HP has also done in the past. :blink:

 

[azfyer]

Some info from the SEC website.


US Airways Group, Inc.
Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements
(Unaudited)


2. Basis of Presentation
The merger has been accounted for as a reverse acquisition using the purchase method of accounting. Although the merger was structured such that America West Holdings became a wholly owned subsidiary of US Airways Group, America West Holdings will be treated as the acquiring company for accounting purposes under Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 141 “Business Combinations,â€￾ due to the following factors: (1) America West Holdings’ stockholders received the largest share of the Company’s common stock in the merger in comparison to the unsecured creditors of US Airways; (2) America West Holdings received a larger number of designees to the board of directors; and (3) America West Holdings’ Chairman and Chief Executive Officer prior to the merger became the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the combined company.

 

[Travels2mch]

Oh who gives a sh$%....it's been over a year now, get a life or get therapy all of you who belabor this point. HP is dead, and so is the old US. Old HP is running the show, old US has the majority in size. So you both have one up on each other. As far as who bought whom, it doesn't matter anymore, it's a done deal.

Try to focus your energy on trying to fix what's broken and make your work lives happier (I know not an easy task). If you can't get over this, get help, or get a new job. This east vs. west thing is getting old and tired. It's not like if you keep bitching, they'll get a divorce!!

 

[700UW]

Why don't you tell the executives to fix what is broken, that is why they make high six figure salaries.

Seems things are getting worse, not better.