Hello. This is Bruce Lakefield on Friday, September 23rd. As you know, our merger with America West Airlines is scheduled to close on Tuesday. So, in all likelihood, this will be my last message to you as president and CEO.
No words can describe how I have come to appreciate all of you. Not just for your outstanding character and high level of professionalism, but also for your love of this industry and your dedication to our company. You have made enormous sacrifices to keep our company alive and preserve our proud heritage.
I understand how hard those sacrifices have been for you. You were asked to do more with less --more than you thought you could do. And you delivered.
Believe me, asking people to make sacrifice after sacrifice is not in any way enjoyable. My sole motivation when I accepted the CEO responsibilities was to keep this company in business and to save as many jobs as we possibly could.
I wish that industry conditions were favorable enough that we could pay you more and provide you with additional resources to do your job. But the harsh reality is that industry conditions are worse than ever before. There were times when we felt that we would not be able to stay in business for more than a few weeks.
But we did. And what we have now is far more than we could have hoped for. We are merging with a young company with a fresh approach to running an airline and a record of proven success. I have said to you time and again that I have utmost confidence in our new management team, particularly our new chief executive, Doug Parker.
And I have tremendous confidence in you, that your pride and professionalism will make the new US Airways a success. Yes, your pride and professionalism will make the new US Airways a success. Many times, as I have flown our system, I have seen you in action. You are courteous, helpful, and professional. I continue to hear the same thing from our customers.
Our operational performance for September has been great, at both mainline and Express. There's a good chance that, for the first time, we will be paying incentives under our All Together, On Time initiative. This is one expense we will be overjoyed to pay. It speaks highly of every one of you to be able to focus on our performance, given the many challenges we face.
While I will be handing off my responsibilities to Doug, I will not be far from the action. I will remain as vice-chairman of the new board of directors. I look forward to that.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to have worked together to enable this airline to continue flying. We have celebrated our accomplishments and suffered through our disappointments. Yet, still we fly high above the rest. Working with you is an experience that I never will forget. So my final Bravo Zulu goes out to every one of you who have made this airline what it is today. There are no finer employees and no prouder a former CEO.
Thank you.
No words can describe how I have come to appreciate all of you. Not just for your outstanding character and high level of professionalism, but also for your love of this industry and your dedication to our company. You have made enormous sacrifices to keep our company alive and preserve our proud heritage.
I understand how hard those sacrifices have been for you. You were asked to do more with less --more than you thought you could do. And you delivered.
Believe me, asking people to make sacrifice after sacrifice is not in any way enjoyable. My sole motivation when I accepted the CEO responsibilities was to keep this company in business and to save as many jobs as we possibly could.
I wish that industry conditions were favorable enough that we could pay you more and provide you with additional resources to do your job. But the harsh reality is that industry conditions are worse than ever before. There were times when we felt that we would not be able to stay in business for more than a few weeks.
But we did. And what we have now is far more than we could have hoped for. We are merging with a young company with a fresh approach to running an airline and a record of proven success. I have said to you time and again that I have utmost confidence in our new management team, particularly our new chief executive, Doug Parker.
And I have tremendous confidence in you, that your pride and professionalism will make the new US Airways a success. Yes, your pride and professionalism will make the new US Airways a success. Many times, as I have flown our system, I have seen you in action. You are courteous, helpful, and professional. I continue to hear the same thing from our customers.
Our operational performance for September has been great, at both mainline and Express. There's a good chance that, for the first time, we will be paying incentives under our All Together, On Time initiative. This is one expense we will be overjoyed to pay. It speaks highly of every one of you to be able to focus on our performance, given the many challenges we face.
While I will be handing off my responsibilities to Doug, I will not be far from the action. I will remain as vice-chairman of the new board of directors. I look forward to that.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to have worked together to enable this airline to continue flying. We have celebrated our accomplishments and suffered through our disappointments. Yet, still we fly high above the rest. Working with you is an experience that I never will forget. So my final Bravo Zulu goes out to every one of you who have made this airline what it is today. There are no finer employees and no prouder a former CEO.
Thank you.
