Danger Will Robinson!

[phasersonstun2]

I was enjoying my day working out, contemplating the airline merger possibilities when a "bolt from the blue" hit me. DP is a crafty CEO. So crafty, that if this Delta deal goes through, here is a wild but plausible possibility of how things might go. I am a U east person, and I am NOT comforted by my own revelation. So here goes:

CO merges with most of NW, with the rest going to AA.

LUV gets the gates in PHL it was promised.

(See where this is going?)

USAirways WEST acquires 100% of Delta.

USAirways EAST is spun off by Parker to UAL.

This is unsettling, but fixes ALL of the seniority problems at U regarding U west and the Philly problem for Parker. After all, with Delta, why does he need PHL or for that matter, U East?

Far out theory? Maybe, but don't be suprised if this maneuver is invoked to settle antitrust issues.

 

[bigbusboy]

Plausible, but I think he'll just sell off Comair, the Shuttle and some gates and facilities throughout the SE. This should keep the DOJ happy.

 

[Old PSA]

Better yet,
Air Trans gives up trying to buy Midwest Airlines and goes after Northwest. Why not, its only about money, right. Continential can then dance with United. That leaves, American with nobody but they then eye Alaska. JetBlue and Southwest codeshare.

Then the TSA decides all airline employees are not safe even with them doing the security checks (the FBI checks aren't good enough, they might be infilitrated)and must be replaced with TSA employees. Of course that would eliminate all the union problems, can't have a union in the TSA. All the problems would be solved with air travel, now a government operation and we all know how good they are. Then, the TSA can focus on trains, buses and ships. I'm sure there are dangerous people working on those means of transportation too.

I can see it all now......Wo, I think I've been inhaling the deicing fumes to long.

 

[RowUnderDCA]

DL's facilities at JFK cannot replace PHL. If you want to get out of the business of domestic hubbing in the NE, you trade PHL for JFK. If not you keep PHL. But I do think that DP's strategy does 'ring' of a trade in: trading in the old LCC for the new DL on the east coast. And I like the mixed references in your thread title. My crazy scenario involves CLT being parted out to an UA/CO combo in favor of new Delta retaining ATL. Or even crazier. CLT being parted out to AA-NW, while MEM gets fractured to UA/CO.

 

[bigbusboy]

USAirways EAST is spun off by Parker to UAL.


[/quote]


I new we'd all become UA, eventually :blink:

 

[Atlantic]

I don't think the money people would go for that. Without US East, the is no US Airways, east or west.

 

[PA18]

I'm really liking the Air Tran/Midwest combo. I was looking at the route structure and A/C today and it makes sense.

Bob,

As a FF, I wouldn't get your hopes up too high.

Do you really think "Forklift Joe" Leonard is going to retain all of Midwest's nice amenities on the newer, bigger, Valujet?

 

[hp_fa]

Some one should change the name of this thread to "Merger Speculation Mania" and the sub title should be "Let your Imagination run wild"

Let's see, how about this.

After having a large role in consolditaing the industry, Doug gets burned-out and discovers golf. In doing so he turns the reigns over to a pilot who has very well placed "informed sources" who love just love him and always share their private information with him.

This pilot, who saw Gordon Gekko once say that the most valuable thing in business was the ability to get private information concerning business, had plenty of "informed people" as sources with such information and they all loved him. So, this pilot, who spent a lot of time in sims, played many, many games of Sim Airline to the point he was good at it. So, he took over the airline, Doug played golf, employees got the shaft (again) and the RC4 found themselves unemployed because they lacked the character sought by the new master of the universe.

 

[whodoiworkfor]

Spin off east to UA. West and Delta merge. Interesting, anything is possible. With Delta, US-west does not need US-east.

 

[RowUnderDCA]

Spin off east to UA. West and Delta merge. Interesting, anything is possible. With Delta, US-west does not need US-east.

some version of that kind of thing wouldn't shock me.

 

[NYCDelta]

Spin off east to UA. West and Delta merge. Interesting, anything is possible. With Delta, US-west does not need US-east.

We already merged with Western, then dismantled the whole west coast operation, save SLC. Why would we need to do that all over again?

 

[Flufdriver]

We already merged with Western, then dismantled the whole west coast operation, save SLC. Why would we need to do that all over again?

NYCDelta...I must say, out of all the "Deltoids" on here...You are without question the MOST professional when it comes to posting!!! You seem to have a level head that OTHERS lack!!! Keep your good attitude no matter what happens!! This situation is extremely tough for your co-workers to accept!!!

 

[PA18]

We already merged with Western, then dismantled the whole west coast operation, save SLC. Why would we need to do that all over again?

Gee, that sounds familiar.

USAir bought PSA, then closed most of the PSA stations, sold the SAN maintenance hangar and offices, eliminated all of the PSA city-pair flights, closed all of the PSA crew domiciles, and eventually parked all of the PSA airplanes.

And in a reversal of the usual strategy of acquiring another company's assets but not its employees, USAir dumped all of PSA's assets but kept most of the PSA employees, which is one of the reasons that seniority at US East has been so stagnant for years.

To this day, Herb Kelleher credits the pull-down of PSA by USAir for giving him a foothold in California, where his airline now dominates. (And just to show how much they liked Herb, USAir then handed the state of Florida to him.)

One of the enduring monuments to the decades of incompetent management at CCY is the fact that Terminal One at LAX -- the old PSA terminal -- is now 99.9% Southwest.

(BTW, the PSA heritage jet has probably never even seen LAX. It has spent most of its working life on the BOS-LGA-DCA Shuttle, where nobody knows what in the hell "PSA" means.)

 

[X-U]

And don't forget BWI. IF the US/DL thing goes through, you can bet that WN will be the biggest beneficiary.