Tim Nelson
Veteran
I will call and listen to his message only because I found this thread interesting. And more specifically the 'we must not fight ourselves' comment. I have to go to breakfast now but I will offer a response later this afternoon.
Hypocrisy
- Thread starter lester
- Start date
Obviously Dave didn't learn a lot about people skills when he was working with Gordon. His weekly message was a huge disappointment. If I hear the words competitive cost structure one more time, I wll scream. I guess you can hear the ax grinder in the background sharpening the blade.
Sorry Dave, but you had my support until your antics with the maintenance work on the airbus and now you've really pushed my support off the cliff with your lack of a response to the WN threat. You had a perfect opportunity and forum to lay the foundation to rally your employees, and you failed. You claimed to draw a line in the sand with WN at PHL, but actually you are drawing a line in the sand with your own employees and your constant whine of competitive cost structure. Defenses are now up and everyone is waiting for your next "Christmas Wish List" of concessions and that will not lead to any form of support or bonding to fight the greater evil.
We all know and realize that since we are one of the few airlines to report a loss, that we have to get our costs lower, but you insist on beating employees with this bat to the bitter end. It is the job of the executives of this company to find areas for improving revenue and lowering costs. Many of your front line employees, like AOG, have wonderful ideas that would generate tremendous cost savings or enhanced reliability....why aren't you LISTENING!
If I am not mistaken, some of our cost issues will be lowered as we bring more of the RJ/SJ on to the property. As we phase out most of our prop fleet we will also have a modest growth plan using the new a/c. The modest growth coupled with the lower pay scales of the express employees should help boost revenue at a lower cost. (Please correct me if I am wrong). It has been said time and time again that you can't shrink an airline to profitability, yet you continue to try and do just that. When are we going to get out of the proverbial toilet bowl spiral?
I would have been much more impressed with Dave had his phone address been more inspiring. You say we are drawing a line in the sand in PHL and we will fight WN head on IF we get a competitve cost structure. With a 40% difference in costs between us and WN you better be coming out iwth some specifics of where you see the ability to cut costs that much, cause I don't see it happeneing. We will never get to a cost structure that low because we are to mature a carrier.
Dave, How are we going to improve efficiiencies with in the airline? What are your plans to truly utilize what you negotiated in your contracts, without violating them? When will you address the real problem of the airline - the fares! The days of ticket prices for business travelers are over. You and every other mature carrier need to find a way to address this issue. In the areas that we are lower priced then WN, then we need to raise the fares. There is no reason we should undercut discount carriers. Meet them seat for seat on price and policy, but beat the snot out of them on brand loyalty with our FF's and future FF's. To do that you will have to put service back into the airline. Taking amenities from the people that pay our bills does nothing to distinguish us from our competitors. Offer the better product at the same price.
Dave always talks about how the main problem with the industry is overcapacity. I disagree. The WN effect is a perfect example of how the right price and service in a market will create the demand. WN comes into a market and offers a reasonable fare high frequencies and a great level of customer service and the market demand shoots up 300-400-800% If we are going to try and gouge the consumer at ridiculously high fares, then we are the cause of the over capacity. How many people can afford to fly at 1200.00 RT? As an employee I have purchased tickets on other LCC's because I want what John Q Public wants. Safe, reliable transportation at a price I can afford. When I was planning a vacaiton with my family (8 of us) I could have paid 350.00 to fly US, or 187 to fly NW or NK non-stop. That is a difference of 163.00 per person. What are you giving me that they aren't that is worth 1304.00 for a family of 8. Worse yet, when I was pricing itineraries, the 350.00 fare was if I connected through PHL or CLT. If I connected via PIT, the fare was 500.00! PIT is somehow worth another 150.00 for the luxury of connecting? How about being able to go to Priceline and getting a better fare on UA from PIT-FLL then on US, but the UA service is on OUR AIRPLANE! Fix it, Fix it, Fix it!
Improve the efficiencies of our crown jewel of PHL. Having PHL as a banking hub is killing us. If the local demand for service is there, as you say it is, then we should be able to support that hub as a rolling hub and greatly improve employee and facility productivity while addressing the operational issues with the peak demands of a banking hop. You will reduce costs associated with fuel consumption, inflated block times, improved aircraft utilizations and you will make crews more productive. Crew members want to fly as much as possible, what they don't want to do is work a leg or two and then take a 3 hour productivity break. Optimize the crew trip pairings and get rid of the waste there. Why we continue to work crews 14 hours one day and then 1-2 legs the next is beyond me. Why we continue to schedule crews for maximum days and minimum overnights is ridiculous. We leave our selves no room for operational challenges. Wouldn't we operate a better airline if we schedule crews for 10-11 hour work days, each day they fly. No more 14 hour days one day, 3 hours the next. Why does one crew go to a station and has 9:35 on the RON and on have 36 hours off on the same equipment type. Why would we ever schedule a 36 hour layover domestically?
See Dave, there are a lot of ways to improve productivity, reduce costs and generate revenue......it is time you stop putting all your hopes and dreams on the 1200.00 business customer that is almost extinct.
A couple other points while I am blowing off some steam here. One being, where the hell is our corporate communications department? I am sick and tired of every article you read that mentions our company being prefaced with negative adjectives. Financially troubled US Airways. Formerly Bankrupt US Airways. Struggling US Airways. Why are we not putting a hault to that? How is it that a college student can smuggle materials on a WN airplane, create a national security crisis, yet the news touts the fact that WN accomplished checks on all of its airplanes in a an expedited manner to ensure customer safety. It is unreal. It is extremely rare that you will find an article anywhere that paints WN in a negative light. Where is Dave Castlevetter and his crew? Why are we not challenging how we are portrayed in the media?
My last rant - Image! When I flew back from my recent vacation I was mortified. The RJ that I was on for one leg looked like the window exit leaked water. The carpet and sidewall where severly stained and looked horrible. The connecting 734 that I was on was no better. The light over the window exit had a screw missing and the light was now misaligned and look horrible. The side walls were filthy and seem covers were popping off. When I checked in at the skycaps desk, the US Airways sign was held on with duct tape! Is this the image that we want to portray to our customers? As Wolf said before, the image we portray to the customer at every point of contact has a direct impression on their overall experience. If they see things that are unattended to or neglected in the cabin, boarding area or ticket counter, that could lead the customer to question how we attend to the items that they can't see. That is a very powerful concept and does speak volumes. Fix our Image!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry Dave, but you have lost my vote of confidence too. Until you can prove that you can motivate. inspire, lead and value your employees, versus the continued barage of beatings, I have lost total respect for you. Perhaps you could go back to Gordon and take a lesson or two on how to treat and value your employees. There is a huge difference in relaying information to employees and challenging them to unite to defend the homeland from the enemy.
Make room for me PitBull.....I am coming to the darkside. LOL
Sorry Dave, but you had my support until your antics with the maintenance work on the airbus and now you've really pushed my support off the cliff with your lack of a response to the WN threat. You had a perfect opportunity and forum to lay the foundation to rally your employees, and you failed. You claimed to draw a line in the sand with WN at PHL, but actually you are drawing a line in the sand with your own employees and your constant whine of competitive cost structure. Defenses are now up and everyone is waiting for your next "Christmas Wish List" of concessions and that will not lead to any form of support or bonding to fight the greater evil.
We all know and realize that since we are one of the few airlines to report a loss, that we have to get our costs lower, but you insist on beating employees with this bat to the bitter end. It is the job of the executives of this company to find areas for improving revenue and lowering costs. Many of your front line employees, like AOG, have wonderful ideas that would generate tremendous cost savings or enhanced reliability....why aren't you LISTENING!
If I am not mistaken, some of our cost issues will be lowered as we bring more of the RJ/SJ on to the property. As we phase out most of our prop fleet we will also have a modest growth plan using the new a/c. The modest growth coupled with the lower pay scales of the express employees should help boost revenue at a lower cost. (Please correct me if I am wrong). It has been said time and time again that you can't shrink an airline to profitability, yet you continue to try and do just that. When are we going to get out of the proverbial toilet bowl spiral?
I would have been much more impressed with Dave had his phone address been more inspiring. You say we are drawing a line in the sand in PHL and we will fight WN head on IF we get a competitve cost structure. With a 40% difference in costs between us and WN you better be coming out iwth some specifics of where you see the ability to cut costs that much, cause I don't see it happeneing. We will never get to a cost structure that low because we are to mature a carrier.
Dave, How are we going to improve efficiiencies with in the airline? What are your plans to truly utilize what you negotiated in your contracts, without violating them? When will you address the real problem of the airline - the fares! The days of ticket prices for business travelers are over. You and every other mature carrier need to find a way to address this issue. In the areas that we are lower priced then WN, then we need to raise the fares. There is no reason we should undercut discount carriers. Meet them seat for seat on price and policy, but beat the snot out of them on brand loyalty with our FF's and future FF's. To do that you will have to put service back into the airline. Taking amenities from the people that pay our bills does nothing to distinguish us from our competitors. Offer the better product at the same price.
Dave always talks about how the main problem with the industry is overcapacity. I disagree. The WN effect is a perfect example of how the right price and service in a market will create the demand. WN comes into a market and offers a reasonable fare high frequencies and a great level of customer service and the market demand shoots up 300-400-800% If we are going to try and gouge the consumer at ridiculously high fares, then we are the cause of the over capacity. How many people can afford to fly at 1200.00 RT? As an employee I have purchased tickets on other LCC's because I want what John Q Public wants. Safe, reliable transportation at a price I can afford. When I was planning a vacaiton with my family (8 of us) I could have paid 350.00 to fly US, or 187 to fly NW or NK non-stop. That is a difference of 163.00 per person. What are you giving me that they aren't that is worth 1304.00 for a family of 8. Worse yet, when I was pricing itineraries, the 350.00 fare was if I connected through PHL or CLT. If I connected via PIT, the fare was 500.00! PIT is somehow worth another 150.00 for the luxury of connecting? How about being able to go to Priceline and getting a better fare on UA from PIT-FLL then on US, but the UA service is on OUR AIRPLANE! Fix it, Fix it, Fix it!
Improve the efficiencies of our crown jewel of PHL. Having PHL as a banking hub is killing us. If the local demand for service is there, as you say it is, then we should be able to support that hub as a rolling hub and greatly improve employee and facility productivity while addressing the operational issues with the peak demands of a banking hop. You will reduce costs associated with fuel consumption, inflated block times, improved aircraft utilizations and you will make crews more productive. Crew members want to fly as much as possible, what they don't want to do is work a leg or two and then take a 3 hour productivity break. Optimize the crew trip pairings and get rid of the waste there. Why we continue to work crews 14 hours one day and then 1-2 legs the next is beyond me. Why we continue to schedule crews for maximum days and minimum overnights is ridiculous. We leave our selves no room for operational challenges. Wouldn't we operate a better airline if we schedule crews for 10-11 hour work days, each day they fly. No more 14 hour days one day, 3 hours the next. Why does one crew go to a station and has 9:35 on the RON and on have 36 hours off on the same equipment type. Why would we ever schedule a 36 hour layover domestically?
See Dave, there are a lot of ways to improve productivity, reduce costs and generate revenue......it is time you stop putting all your hopes and dreams on the 1200.00 business customer that is almost extinct.
A couple other points while I am blowing off some steam here. One being, where the hell is our corporate communications department? I am sick and tired of every article you read that mentions our company being prefaced with negative adjectives. Financially troubled US Airways. Formerly Bankrupt US Airways. Struggling US Airways. Why are we not putting a hault to that? How is it that a college student can smuggle materials on a WN airplane, create a national security crisis, yet the news touts the fact that WN accomplished checks on all of its airplanes in a an expedited manner to ensure customer safety. It is unreal. It is extremely rare that you will find an article anywhere that paints WN in a negative light. Where is Dave Castlevetter and his crew? Why are we not challenging how we are portrayed in the media?
My last rant - Image! When I flew back from my recent vacation I was mortified. The RJ that I was on for one leg looked like the window exit leaked water. The carpet and sidewall where severly stained and looked horrible. The connecting 734 that I was on was no better. The light over the window exit had a screw missing and the light was now misaligned and look horrible. The side walls were filthy and seem covers were popping off. When I checked in at the skycaps desk, the US Airways sign was held on with duct tape! Is this the image that we want to portray to our customers? As Wolf said before, the image we portray to the customer at every point of contact has a direct impression on their overall experience. If they see things that are unattended to or neglected in the cabin, boarding area or ticket counter, that could lead the customer to question how we attend to the items that they can't see. That is a very powerful concept and does speak volumes. Fix our Image!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry Dave, but you have lost my vote of confidence too. Until you can prove that you can motivate. inspire, lead and value your employees, versus the continued barage of beatings, I have lost total respect for you. Perhaps you could go back to Gordon and take a lesson or two on how to treat and value your employees. There is a huge difference in relaying information to employees and challenging them to unite to defend the homeland from the enemy.
Make room for me PitBull.....I am coming to the darkside. LOL
2clippedwings
Veteran
The enemy is the management of this company,not the competition.Siegle has done nithing but lie since he came to US Airways.Every city is understaffed and overworked.More paycuts,how about all of the agents that were cut from fulltime to partime.Isn't $300.00 aweek enough?The best solution for us is a management team that works with the employees as a asset,not a liability.
I can hardly wait to see what disasters happen over Thanksgiving and Christmas week!
I can hardly wait to see what disasters happen over Thanksgiving and Christmas week!
PITbull
Veteran
Markmywords,
No my friend, YOU HAVE COME INTO THE "LIGHT", because you have seen the light!
I knew, one day you would get there. Just like many on these boards along with many of our most loyal customers. This type of evil management could not continue to hide behind the illusion of "labor friendliness" for too long. The Great OZ has exposed himself!
They are ....destroyers of morale, killers of hope, and war mongers who anoint themselves in the "art of war".
Your post above will cost you a major "PM" by mangement. Rest assured, flyonthewall, Hawk, and CCY will come raming you big time. They will beg you to "join Dave's team", and not continue the "infighting", as Dave perceives. On Dave's message he implies the infighting is mostly labor not submitting to their business plan. He implies that he and his team are "innocent" and are only trying to save an airline.
Again, its all about arrogance. He speaks mostly to squashing rumors and endeavors to correct them. He spends most of his conclusion that he will continue every week to squash the "rumor mill". He speaks nothing of employee morale or that he and his team will endeavor to hit the competitior head on with restructuring and simplifing the fares, providing better service, improving the product, and changing our image as "a struggling carrier". He only implies of more sacrificing by the employees with his retorhic on CASMS, RASMS, ASMS, CHASMS, DASMS, Blah, blah, blah, blah....
If Dave truly cares about saving an airline, he needs to recognize that he is the creator of the "anger beast" that now dwells within the employee ranks. He must recognize that trust is gone and he will remain ineffective. He needs to recognize that he MUST remove himself and his team from our company.
If he does not, then he is truly arrogant and only seeks to position this company for his own personal gain. And his Lorenzo-offsprings are a part of and are accomplices to that greed.
God help us all.
We will not submit to coporate greed, and we will not give in to more concessions that will only eliminate more of our ranks, impoverish our workers, for the sake of saving all of senior mangement and making them millionaires. We will take our company back come "hell" or "high water". We will eliminate this management before they destroy our company. And only then, will we fight the competitors with all our mights.
Dr. Bronner MUST choose.
No my friend, YOU HAVE COME INTO THE "LIGHT", because you have seen the light!
I knew, one day you would get there. Just like many on these boards along with many of our most loyal customers. This type of evil management could not continue to hide behind the illusion of "labor friendliness" for too long. The Great OZ has exposed himself!
They are ....destroyers of morale, killers of hope, and war mongers who anoint themselves in the "art of war".
Your post above will cost you a major "PM" by mangement. Rest assured, flyonthewall, Hawk, and CCY will come raming you big time. They will beg you to "join Dave's team", and not continue the "infighting", as Dave perceives. On Dave's message he implies the infighting is mostly labor not submitting to their business plan. He implies that he and his team are "innocent" and are only trying to save an airline.
Again, its all about arrogance. He speaks mostly to squashing rumors and endeavors to correct them. He spends most of his conclusion that he will continue every week to squash the "rumor mill". He speaks nothing of employee morale or that he and his team will endeavor to hit the competitior head on with restructuring and simplifing the fares, providing better service, improving the product, and changing our image as "a struggling carrier". He only implies of more sacrificing by the employees with his retorhic on CASMS, RASMS, ASMS, CHASMS, DASMS, Blah, blah, blah, blah....
If Dave truly cares about saving an airline, he needs to recognize that he is the creator of the "anger beast" that now dwells within the employee ranks. He must recognize that trust is gone and he will remain ineffective. He needs to recognize that he MUST remove himself and his team from our company.
If he does not, then he is truly arrogant and only seeks to position this company for his own personal gain. And his Lorenzo-offsprings are a part of and are accomplices to that greed.
God help us all.
We will not submit to coporate greed, and we will not give in to more concessions that will only eliminate more of our ranks, impoverish our workers, for the sake of saving all of senior mangement and making them millionaires. We will take our company back come "hell" or "high water". We will eliminate this management before they destroy our company. And only then, will we fight the competitors with all our mights.
Dr. Bronner MUST choose.
It seems to me we can all see that the company is not gonna turn things around and be successful by trying to take any more from their employees..We have already been there...done that...It doesn't work...
The company needs to focus on marketing this company, providing excellent service, reworking and simplfying the fare structures so there are not hundreds of fares in 1 market...work on bringing the business travellers back that we have lost to the other airlines, and making the workplace a pleasant enviroment for the employees....
That is the secret to success that airlines like Southwest and Jetblue use..not beating up on their employees...
The company needs to focus on marketing this company, providing excellent service, reworking and simplfying the fare structures so there are not hundreds of fares in 1 market...work on bringing the business travellers back that we have lost to the other airlines, and making the workplace a pleasant enviroment for the employees....
That is the secret to success that airlines like Southwest and Jetblue use..not beating up on their employees...
Here's my bottom line.
I am prepared to work my ass off to restore U to it's rightful place.
I am prepared to take my chances with a BK judge before I ever take another chance on current management.
It's NOT mutually exclusive.
I am prepared to work my ass off to restore U to it's rightful place.
I am prepared to take my chances with a BK judge before I ever take another chance on current management.
It's NOT mutually exclusive.
MarkMyWords -
Nice post and well put. You touch on a lot of subjects I have yet to see mentioned here, such as Corporate Communications (or lack thereof).
Nice post and well put. You touch on a lot of subjects I have yet to see mentioned here, such as Corporate Communications (or lack thereof).
Mark's rant was right on the money!
Siegel now needs to look back at his own words from March, 2002, when he arrived on the property. He said that the same people who got USAirways into the mess could not get us out. Now Siegel has gotten us into a deeper mess, so by his own words he must step aside since he is incapable of getting us out.
Siegel now needs to look back at his own words from March, 2002, when he arrived on the property. He said that the same people who got USAirways into the mess could not get us out. Now Siegel has gotten us into a deeper mess, so by his own words he must step aside since he is incapable of getting us out.
In Daves weekly message he again mentions costs and "giving the customer a product they want and are willing to pay for". The current business plan continues to fall short (large increase in RJ's ) at the expense of mainline flying. The current business plan seems to instead be TELLING the customer what he/she THINK they want. To be competitive we do need a competitve cost structure, but in addition a GROWING revenue base. Instead our passengers are leaving our company as the numbers below will bear out. Management and the new business plan are NOT listening to our passengers. The numbers come from the respective companies news releases or current 10q from edgar online. Look at revenue for jblu and luv then look revenue passengers flown 03 vs 02. Keep in mind neither fly RJs as of this date. Yet passengers are flocking to them and cost isn't the only reason. The LLCs truly do listen to their customers. Dave and company are FORCING our passengers to fly RJs in many cases and to fly through PHL which is an operational nightmare. In the process pushing our passengers (OUR REVENUE BASE) to other carriers. Look at passengers flown year to date for UAIR. We've lost an astounding 16% passenger base year over year. The other majors have lost also but at a much smaller rate. The customer must not agree with the plan. The employees are not the problem for this loss. We can only provide a product as good as this management will empower us to. Apparently the customer sees a better product. Unfortunately it's on our competition!! COMPANY REVENUE IN BILLIONS PCT. PASS. FLOWN MILLIONS PCT
2003 2002 2003 2002
AMR 13049 13195 -1.1% NA NA
CAL 6622 6364 +4.0% 29978 31365 -4.4%
DAL 9905 9997 - .9% 27059 27713 - .9%
JBLU .735407 .447933 +64% 6634 4016 +65%
LUV 4420 4121 + .7% 17243 16256 +6.1%
NWAC 7103 7150 - .6% 39044 39891 -2.1%
UAIR 5021 5320 - 5.6% 30866 36801 -16.1%
UAL 10110 10819 -6.5% 17635 18900 -6.7%
Will management heed or continue to bleed ????
2003 2002 2003 2002
AMR 13049 13195 -1.1% NA NA
CAL 6622 6364 +4.0% 29978 31365 -4.4%
DAL 9905 9997 - .9% 27059 27713 - .9%
JBLU .735407 .447933 +64% 6634 4016 +65%
LUV 4420 4121 + .7% 17243 16256 +6.1%
NWAC 7103 7150 - .6% 39044 39891 -2.1%
UAIR 5021 5320 - 5.6% 30866 36801 -16.1%
UAL 10110 10819 -6.5% 17635 18900 -6.7%
Will management heed or continue to bleed ????
MMW<
Thank God you've come to your senses.
I've NEVER BEEN IMPRESSED with HIM>
Another Hatchett Man waiting at the Guilliteon..
:down:
Thank God you've come to your senses.
I've NEVER BEEN IMPRESSED with HIM>
Another Hatchett Man waiting at the Guilliteon..
:down:
Dave states in his message that passengers dont care if the plane is a larger jet or a regional jet as long as its not a turboprop. I spend a great deal of time with our passengers and beg to differ. I think the Embrear 170s will go over well, but RJs DO NOT on many routes.
Lets look at what the other airlines did during the RJ revolution (the late 90s). They expanded thier route networks into other carriers territories and replaced turboprops. Traditionally, no other airline could match USAir/US Airways East Coast presence and sheer number of cities served in the east. You HAD to fly US to get to certain places, or at least get there by jet plane. With RJS, other airlines were able to cheaply add many of our bread and butter markets to thier diverse networks, and therefore, take our customers.
So now we have gone from a restrictive scope clause to letting U fly as many RJs as they'd like, operated by whomever they please while they park US aircraft and employees without offering them jobs (I'll believe MDA when I see it). US is using RJs to replace service on thier existing routes when they should be using them to grow service. Are we using them to venture into the Midwest, NW, and UA territory?No, we're just putting them on our network because thay are cheaper. There are certainly routes that should have been served by smaller aircraft (and entire sections of the country that should have been served by the company's then 400-plane fleet, but thats thier fault by placing all bets on a cluster of hubs in the same region). US should be doing the opposite of the others and focus on growing the mainline into a more substantial network.
US Airways is still flying the same old reduntant, limited route structure, but with much smaller, customer unfriendly aircraft with no premium cabins and dodgy operational stats. Thats not what the customer wants.
They pay more money to fly us because we are a "full-service" carrier. But our first class is comprable to low fare carriers premium services, and our IFE and food service is at times less. Thats not what they want either.
Dave, we dont believe in your business plan and neither do our remaining customers. Nor do most airline analysts, or our competitors. I dont think Southwest would be coming to Philly if they thought we had a solid business plan.
Dave, you've talked about how we are not a major airline, we're not a low-cost... and you want us to be a regional, with regional costs that also flies to select international destinations, but provides very basic service and amenities, but charges higher than average fares???!? We are all confused, and think that you are too.
Unless you dramatically change the airline, like trying to emulate point to pointt carriers (which would be near impossible unless you start from scratch), youre stuck with a major, network carrier with major, network employees who arent going to help you with your cheap, shortsighted vision. Grow the network, stop asking for money, improve service, and make a plan thats good for the airline, its customers, and its employees rather than slowly getting rid of all of the above.
Lets look at what the other airlines did during the RJ revolution (the late 90s). They expanded thier route networks into other carriers territories and replaced turboprops. Traditionally, no other airline could match USAir/US Airways East Coast presence and sheer number of cities served in the east. You HAD to fly US to get to certain places, or at least get there by jet plane. With RJS, other airlines were able to cheaply add many of our bread and butter markets to thier diverse networks, and therefore, take our customers.
So now we have gone from a restrictive scope clause to letting U fly as many RJs as they'd like, operated by whomever they please while they park US aircraft and employees without offering them jobs (I'll believe MDA when I see it). US is using RJs to replace service on thier existing routes when they should be using them to grow service. Are we using them to venture into the Midwest, NW, and UA territory?No, we're just putting them on our network because thay are cheaper. There are certainly routes that should have been served by smaller aircraft (and entire sections of the country that should have been served by the company's then 400-plane fleet, but thats thier fault by placing all bets on a cluster of hubs in the same region). US should be doing the opposite of the others and focus on growing the mainline into a more substantial network.
US Airways is still flying the same old reduntant, limited route structure, but with much smaller, customer unfriendly aircraft with no premium cabins and dodgy operational stats. Thats not what the customer wants.
They pay more money to fly us because we are a "full-service" carrier. But our first class is comprable to low fare carriers premium services, and our IFE and food service is at times less. Thats not what they want either.
Dave, we dont believe in your business plan and neither do our remaining customers. Nor do most airline analysts, or our competitors. I dont think Southwest would be coming to Philly if they thought we had a solid business plan.
Dave, you've talked about how we are not a major airline, we're not a low-cost... and you want us to be a regional, with regional costs that also flies to select international destinations, but provides very basic service and amenities, but charges higher than average fares???!? We are all confused, and think that you are too.
Unless you dramatically change the airline, like trying to emulate point to pointt carriers (which would be near impossible unless you start from scratch), youre stuck with a major, network carrier with major, network employees who arent going to help you with your cheap, shortsighted vision. Grow the network, stop asking for money, improve service, and make a plan thats good for the airline, its customers, and its employees rather than slowly getting rid of all of the above.
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