Luv2fly:
Although I find your comments interesting, I disagree with the text of your argument.
Dave Siegel correctly accused DAL of its anticompetitive behavior. I will not go into the details, but DAL was behind the House movement to change the loan guarantee program through the emergency spending bill, was the impetus behind the ACAA objection to the UA-US code share plan and the open docket filing, and some other issues I will not discuss in an open forum.
According to Reuters Delta's strategy is built on one basic element: US Airways' failure, Siegel said.
In response to the two alliances, the DL, NW, and CO alliance covers approximately 40 percent of the market and has an enormous antitrust issue in New York, the NW equity investment in CO, and the NW agreement to control a CO change of control, plus the three partners not offering to meet antitrust issues of joint pricing, joint scheduling, and joint sales functions, at least publicly.
On the other hand, the UA-US alliance will have about 25 percent of the market, or 10 percent more than AA, and has only 2 percent overlap. Per their filing, the parties have said they do not intend to have joint pricing, joint scheduling, and joint sales functions, thus eliminating the antitrust concern. The UA-US application is identical to NW-CO except US-US will not have an equity investment.
Siegel referred to the proposed DL, NW, & CO alliance as the Axis of Evil and Mullin Dr. Evil. I wonder why?
Also noteworthy, today’s announcement by the DOT that it has extended its review of two code-share proposals for 30 days, now until October 23, has likely more to do with the three-way partnership than the UA-US deal. Van de Water’s comment of “We have concluded that we need additional time to analyze the issues presented by the agreements, likely indicates the problem with the three-way alliance, the confidential portion of the UA-US agreement, and what could occur if UA files bankruptcy, which many observers believe is likely restructuring path.
In regard to a formal restructuring, the federal government created legislation to permit viable company's to restructure, which is considered a legitimate way to adjust your business model in a changing environment. In fact, the New York Times called the US plan the template for a restructuring and Bob Crandall said US would become a strong competitor, which in my opinion is your concern.
By the way, whom do you work for?
Chip