- Aug 20, 2002
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As many of us here recall, today marks the 14th anniversary of the PI/US Merger. I would just like to reflect on how far we have fallen since that fateful day back in 1989. At that time the combined airlines had a fleet of 454 Aircraft…….Today we are barely clinging on to 279. We have closed 3 of the former PI hubs, those being BWI, SYR and DAY. Sad to say that DAY no longer has Mainline status, and BWI has been handed over to SWA. And we all know that the PIT Hub that was once the backbone of the US system, is fading fast. EWR was once a very large station that had a lot of point to point flying for both carries with near 70 mainline departures, is down to a mere 11 flights. CO now is king of many of those former routes that we served. Our dominance in ORF, RIC, GSO, RDU and BUF along with others that I can’t recall is gone. Also gone is the Interstate Florida Shuttle, now pretty much done by SWA. We have closed roughly 25 mainline stations, and opened nothing new in the continental US in the past 10 years. Our marketing department if you can call it that, is and has been non existent. Add to this list the Reservations centers and Maintainence bases that have gone by the wayside as well.
All of this points to the lackluster Management that we have had over the past 14 years. I believe that we have only had 2 profitable years during this timeframe, those being 1996/97. I know that all is said and done, but one must still wonder how 2 prosperous and profitable airlines were merged to create this albatross of an airline. Granted some consolidation after the merger was warranted, but not as much as we have seen take place. After the merger this airline never has been able to grasp the concept of defending their turf from the competition, and to this day they still don’t. Delta has invaded many of our once dominant NE stations as well as others. Case in point is Delta overtaking US for the first time in ORF. We are retreating with the RJ’s, and they are bringing in the 757’s. SWA and AirTran continue to eat us for lunch with Jet Blue on the rise. We can only run for so long until all is gone. On top of all of this, there is also the squandered
PSA merger, which is another story all together. Fear not, the RJ’s are going to fix everything and save us from all of these blunders of the past 14 years………………
All of this points to the lackluster Management that we have had over the past 14 years. I believe that we have only had 2 profitable years during this timeframe, those being 1996/97. I know that all is said and done, but one must still wonder how 2 prosperous and profitable airlines were merged to create this albatross of an airline. Granted some consolidation after the merger was warranted, but not as much as we have seen take place. After the merger this airline never has been able to grasp the concept of defending their turf from the competition, and to this day they still don’t. Delta has invaded many of our once dominant NE stations as well as others. Case in point is Delta overtaking US for the first time in ORF. We are retreating with the RJ’s, and they are bringing in the 757’s. SWA and AirTran continue to eat us for lunch with Jet Blue on the rise. We can only run for so long until all is gone. On top of all of this, there is also the squandered
PSA merger, which is another story all together. Fear not, the RJ’s are going to fix everything and save us from all of these blunders of the past 14 years………………
