US Airways chairman David Bronner has made it clear that if the company has a competitive cost structure including labor participation that there may not be a need to sell assets. However, the company will not violate terms of the loan guarantee and if necessary, the company could sell assets to meet loan guarantee requirements.
The January 23 ALPA code-a-phone said, “As provided by a recently passed MEC resolution, your Negotiating Committee, along with ALPA staff and advisors, will begin meeting on Tuesday of next week to begin fact finding discussions with management. We will provide developments from those meetings on the code a phone and web site once they become available.â€
The timing of today’s news coincides with today’s meeting where US Airways senior management will present to ALPA the transformation plan and the Company’s opinion on how the pilot group could participate. The plan could include adding 60 A320 family aircraft, the pilot monthly flying increased to 96 hours, and a 6-hour average minimum day.
However, without new labor accords I expect asset sales and more furloughs.
In my opinion, PSA will be sold and Allegheny/Piedmont may be sold, but all other assets will be kept, if management and labor make progress on new CBA’s. The funds obtained from the sale of the Express carriers could be used to pay down some of the loan guarantee and change the EBITDAR requirements, which take effect in July.
Finally, I expect to see an article appear in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tomorrow commenting on today's meeting between ALPA & management and a comment that if labor agrees to work rule changes then an asset sale will not be necessary.
Respectfully,
USA320Pilot