My recollection on the state of the Airline call.

UPNAWAY

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Aug 17, 2005
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Uncertainty is the big issues and the reason it makes planning difficult. But all in all Doug feels things are looking up and heading in the right direction. No big layoff on the horizon, but attrition has almost stopped and they won’t be as able to us that as they have in the past if cuts become necessary.

New VP of in-flight focus is Int’l product and domestic consistency.
Some of the Customer focuses areas.
More empowerment for agents in rebooking and hotels.
Premium beverage & enhanced snack offerings are coming.
Free Wi-Fi in all clubs
Changed to DB compensation
Reservations moving back in house currently 50% by year’s end 75% and in 2 yrs 100%.

Our block times are 5-10% below industry average and UA & AA are adding big increases, so don’t feel bad if we improve in A14 YOY but the others improve more. We are running a leaner and more efficient operation.

May ask to delay China another year.

Cash on hand is not an issue and doesn’t for see any problems. Thinks he could raise money if he had to but doesn’t think he will have to.

IFE test ongoing, Lumexis is going well and Direct TV test about to start but no inseat IFE until financing is available and currently there is not any.

On the Pilots issues said he and the company have no opinion except to have it settled and to move on.


That was the main jist as I recall. Fill free to add or correct.
 
I wasn’t aware the law has or is changing

The law is not changing. We've had too many complaints regarding the take flight certificate. People assume it is a free tkt without restrictions only to later find out it is inventory restricted. To reduce complaints, we are going to change the type of DB comp. Not sure what it is but I imagine a dollar value voucher good for any flight.
 
What do we give out nowadays for Volunteers in oversold situations?

In the olden days it was a $ amount voucher and we started a flight offering $200 and worked our way up to $500 to solicited volunteers.

Dollar amout was nice becuse it was just like cash
 
Selected State of the Airline Employee Webcast Points

1. Economic conditions are bad. Industry revenues are down 15%.

2. US Airways is moving its off shore reservation centers back to the U.S. with the goal of having all reservation calls answered by U.S.-based reservation agents. In sourcing will be fully completed within the next two years. We currently have 50% in-house, will have about 75% by the end of the year, and in 2 years we will have 100% of reservations handled by U.S.-based English speaking agents.

3. US Airways is better positioned to survive the economic downturn than its peers because it is running a better operation, team is taking better care of customers, higher relative ancillary revenues than its peers because they’re domestic-based, US Airways has less exposure to softer international markets, the company has a well positioned cost structure and relative cash position.

4. US Airways had the largest pre-tax year-over-year improvement over every other hub-and-spoke airline. Only domestic carriers JetBlue, AirTran, and Southwest (all domestic airlines) had a better performance.

5. The company’s cash position as a percent of annual revenue is better than Delta, American, and United and is slightly worse than Continental’s.

6. A question was asked, "If US Airways would merge with United the DOJ anti-trust review would be much different than before (paraphrased)?" The only likely anti-trust issue would be Washington/Baltimore (DCA/IAD/BWI), but today that would be different because of Southwest’s BWI build up, the proliferations of low-cost carriers, and a different world today than before.

7. US Airways’ new VP of InFlight Services Hector Adler will focus ion the company’s International product and domestic consistency. Some of the customer focuses areas going forward are more empowerment for agents in rebooking and hotels, premium beverage & enhanced snack offerings are coming, Free Wi-Fi in all clubs, and changes to the “denied boarding†compensation program.

8. The company’s block times are 5-10% below industry average and United & America are adding big increases, so don’t feel bad if the company improves in A14 YOY but the others improve more. We are running a leaner and more efficient operation.

9. The company may ask to delay new China service for another year. The plan is to have it start in April 2010, but China has been hit very hard by the recession and Doug said he would not be surprised if the company asks for another delay.

10. On the pilot seniority integration issue Doug said the company has “no opinion except to have it settled and to move on.â€

Regards,

USA320Pilot
 
May ask to delay China another year.

Why don't they just face facts? This airline is not going to China until they have an airplane that can do the job with a chance of making a profit. That won't happen until the A350 gets delivered, sometime in, uh, 2075?

The DOT really should just rescind the authority if they ask for another delay, and tell them to reapply when they are serious, or at least have a serious capability of going to China.
 
In the olden days it was a $ amount voucher and we started a flight offering $200 and worked our way up to $500 to solicited volunteers.

Dollar amout was nice becuse it was just like cash
That was the PEOPLExpress model that HP was structure after
 
Is somebody really THAT hooked on merging with ual?? wow


UAL is the one hooked on merging. If they continue to burn through the amount of money they have this quater (almost 600million). They will have 6 quaters of cash left on hand.
 
UAL is the one hooked on merging. If they continue to burn through the amount of money they have this quater (almost 600million). They will have 6 quaters of cash left on hand.
Don't confuse a net loss with cash burn...UA increased cash in the 1st quarter.

Jim
 
Companies of many industries are merging or thinking of merging for obvious reasons. I wonder how long until the next merger is announced. I just can't believe that airlines are sitting around hoping for better times and concentrating on their "own" business. The airlines certainly DO need to merge more. I'm betting nobody would come close to us with a ten foot pool. :lol:
 
Companies of many industries are merging or thinking of merging for obvious reasons. I wonder how long until the next merger is announced. I just can't believe that airlines are sitting around hoping for better times and concentrating on their "own" business. The airlines certainly DO need to merge more. I'm betting nobody would come close to us with a ten foot pool. :lol:

The problem now is that most mergers would require outside financing and the credit market has absolutely dried up, but yes in the long term, more mergers will be inevitable.