Firm Hands Reaping Applause At USAirways

[JAMAKE1]

Some food for thought...

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/newsanalys...E&cm_ite=NA

 

[PITbull]

Some food for thought...

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/newsanalys...E&cm_ite=NA

This is an excellent article and needs to move to the top for others to have the opportunity to read.

Siegel trying to derive some credit using BK loophole for restructuring and Lakefield copying the same MO.

Both CEO's left the bankrupte airline much wealthier than they came in.

 

[flyingcat]

Interesting Siegel quote:
"I know the employees went through a lot. But had I kept my old job, and never gone to US Airways, I would have made a lot more money and nobody would have complained about it."

 

[delldude]

Isn't Ted Reed the CLT observer reporter who used to like labor then was fired and now sleeps with management?

 

[ExUAW]

Interesting Siegel quote:
"I know the employees went through a lot. But had I kept my old job, and never gone to US Airways, I would have made a lot more money and nobody would have complained about it."

Boo-Hoo ... Boo-Hoo! Poor Dave and Poor Bruce! What heros they are for heaping coals on the rest of us and our creditors. It's the king's men and the king's horses who put humpty together again through severe pay and benefit cuts and heavy hits that our vendors took twice to make all the CEO's look good. Yeah... "We make US Fly" alright ... each of us with our continuing several thousand dollar contribution per year in lost benefits and wages while management gets a 3% increase and millions in stock options. I had high hopes but with the current stalling by Doug at the negotiating table echoes of "same old, same old!" ring in my ears.

 

[WestCoastGuy]

Davy and his crocodile tears impress no one. They all came here, went thru some motions and departed with millions. The employees were the ones that were broken, forced into bankruptcy, and ripped of their benefits and pay, they worked hard to obtain over the years. I have no respect or concern for any of them. I wouldnt give them the time of day. And Im sure their feelings are mutual.

 

[diogenes]

From the look of Dougie's stock options, I'd say the cycle hasn't ended yet.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

Love that Ted Reed, who by the way, was in the corporate communications department at the Crystal Palace the last year. Now back to the story...

Love the last line:
"I give Doug Parker the benefit of the doubt," Stephan said. "But he will need a lot more than communication skills to appease this pilot group."


DUH!

Understatement of the decade, not just for pilots, but for everyone. Just show us the money and we'll show you the love.

Later,
Eye

 

[Dog Wonder]

Good thing all these CEOs like each other. Who else would be their friend?

 

[REACC1]

What would be the next move...Hmmm, let me see.....pull a rabbit out of my a... Or, pull a anti version of USairways, and do something positive, proactive, creative, non status quo, (the pits) something we have been missing since Piedmont and Usair. Like the equiptment to do a job, help desk that actually helps, quickly. I know, just novel ideas or hopes. Oh yeah, let the people that are employed by the airline actually work where they prefer to work (of course based on seinority) NAH! Why bother.

 

[USA320Pilot]

PineyBob:

I agree with your post, which is well-written and accurate.

Best regards,

USA320Pilot

 

[supercruiser]

I still maintain that Bruce Lakefield is the unsung hero of this whole post 9/11 trauma that was US Airways.

When you consider what Lakefield faced and where he came from, we are all lucky he was up to the task.

Bob,

I really think he lucked out, because he knew so little about operations, and/or the people he hired/continued to employ didn't either, this airline came a hair away from operationally self destructing under his direct watch.

The fact that he basically ran this company from his home in Naples didn't help much, not that it would have mattered. ("This is Bruce Lakefield calling from Naples over the holidays to tell you that you guys are really screwing up there in PHL") What happened in PHL didn't happen in a vacuum, and the operation was sinking for quite awhile leading up to that disaster. I can't imagine how much money spent/revenue lost/bad will/bad press/bad everything happened because of that. He either didn't know or didn't care.

He may be the big finance guy that made this transaction happen, which I applaud, but in the meantime he was supposed to be running an airline, which he did an absolute horrible job of doing.

The only thing we're lucky for, is that the employees in spite of his incompetence on the operations end, kept this thing going until he could do his magic on the finance end.

 

[ringmaruf]

a result of the quiet international banker who left the country club to help a friend out.

Hey, Piney, I agree with you, I'm a huge Lakefield fan. (Though leaving Ashby and Crellin in charge of actually running the airline left something to be desired...)

But if his only purpose was to save jobs as he claims, think of how many more he could have saved by getting that dear friend of his Dr. Dave a) not to try and outsource the entire airline to Alabama and B) to close his big fat mouth, shut the hell up, and stop scaring away the customers in the press.

 

[NCFL]

Good article. I'm one of the few who liked Siegel, in spite of all the pay cuts and job losses. Or, maybe I DISliked Rakesh (tyrant) so much that anyone would have been better. Who knows.

At any rate, my main commentary is that Ted Reed referred to Piedmont as "defunct." He needed to check his facts better. Both Piedmont and pre-1989-merger USAir were very successful financially. Piedmont certainly had better service and a better reputation, but the "old" USAir made money hand over fist. Back in the day, your choices for travel in the NE were either USAir or drive (or perhaps the train), so USAir could charge whatever it wanted...and it did with gusto.

It wasn't until the PSA and Piedmont mergers were botched by Colodny and the competition started to smell blood that things went sour.