A sudden shutdown would mean a huge drop in capacity which won t easily be made up in the short-medi

Will this merger really be a win-win ? / Photo by Peter Ashton - Flickr I f it happens, the expected union of US Airways and American Airlines could be one of the last big legacy airline mergers. Maybe even the last one.
Just after US Airways announced last month that it had the backing of key employee unions at American Airlines, Kevin Mitchell of the Business Travel Coalition called on the Transportation Department to conduct a thorough analysis of past airline mergers and their outcomes.
His organization, an advocacy group for corporate travel interests, has testified before Congress against several previous consolidations. Mergers, Mitchell says, have allowed some airlines to "ignore the demands of their most valuable customers."
The US Airways-American hookup is by no means a certainty. So it may be too soon to sound the alarm bells, but not by much. The next chapter in the process is a bankruptcy court hearing, scheduled travel maps rio de janeiro for next month, in which a judge will determine whether American's travel maps rio de janeiro current management has the right to discharge the company's labor agreements.
No one knows when an actual merger plan would be announced, although it seems clear that US Airways wants it to happen as soon as possible. The Justice Department is responsible for determining whether a US Airways-American combination travel maps rio de janeiro should be challenged on competitive grounds, with the Transportation Department and the Federal Aviation Administration typically advising the agency. If the DOT has compelling evidence that airlines didn't keep their promises in past mergers, it could effectively block the deal. But either way, it would be highly unusual for the government to conduct any kind of study before a deal is announced.
But the way many air travelers see it, we don't need any studies to determine travel maps rio de janeiro whether the merger is a good idea. Most of those I've talked to, pointing to the dismal quality of domestic air travel today, say that it's not.
"There's less and less competition in the airline industry with all the mergers," says MaryHelen Maupin, a travel agent in Nashville who has had a front-row seat to every airline combination since deregulation. "One thing's travel maps rio de janeiro for sure: It ruins customer service and employee morale."
Seth Miller is an air-travel blogger who's closely following the proposed merger. Based on previous carrier travel maps rio de janeiro consolidations, he says, he expects two results from this one: "fewer choices and higher fares."
But Michael Miller, vice president of strategy for the American travel maps rio de janeiro Aviation Institute, a Washington-based think tank, says that the benefits of such mergers are invisible to most passengers. travel maps rio de janeiro When Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines combined in 2008, he says, the process was "seamless" and made sense from an operational perspective. travel maps rio de janeiro The new airline had a commanding presence in Asia and South America, and its network travel maps rio de janeiro now serves international customers better. When airlines become more competitive, they become more profitable and reliable, which helps consumers, he says.
But he adds that not all mergers have that result: Customers have yet to benefit from the recent Southwest Airlines union with AirTran, a mash-up of two airlines with different corporate cultures and routes.
How would US Airways-American stack up against past airline mergers? It may be too soon to tell. But some of the numbers are troubling, at least when it comes to customer service. Take the latest scores from the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index, which weighed data for six major airlines in 2011. American Airlines earned 63 out of a possible 100 points, just ahead of US Airways, which tied for second-to-last place with a score of 61. Only Delta, with a 56, scored worse. If the airlines maintain their level of performance after a merger, a combined US Airways-American travel maps rio de janeiro is likely to be the most-complained-about air carrier in the country.
I'm leaning toward yes. I can't think of a single airline merger that resulted in happier customers or employees, and for that reason alone, I'd cast a vote against the deal. (Not that it's up to me.)
But I can also remember a time in the not-too-distant past when American Airlines represented the gold standard in customer service. In 1995, before the carrier fell in love with fees, its American Customer Satisfaction Index score of 71 was just a few points lower than that of service-leader travel maps rio de janeiro Southwest. I think that under the right management, it can reclaim some of its lost luster.
You may feel powerless to do anything as the merger drama unfolds. But you aren't. Where you still have a choice in airlines, you can buy a ticket on a carrier that treats you with dignity. And you can tell your elected representatives that you expect more from your government than a rubber stamp on this deal. In an election year, they might listen to you.
Even if the regulators mishandle this merger, they'll probably have another chance before long. Because this probably won't be the last airline merger ever. Says the American Aviation Institute's Miller, "There will always travel maps rio de janeiro be mergers and acquisitions in aviation."
As much as I hate the way the airlines are going, they re still a business and the last time I checked, the US was still a free (and very much a capitalist) nation. In this economy, mergers often act as a cleaning house event. It s time for the companies to change whatever they ve been wanting to change (usually offering the customer less in the process). So while I don t like it, I don t think there s much the consumer can do about it. One of these days, these airlines will figure out that most consumers will be happy to pay an extra $25-50 a ticket to be treated with some decency.
Or, here s a radical concept, the companies can act like they used to. When you are bankrupt, you close your doors permanently and send the employees home. Yeah, it sucks to be unemployed, but that s how it works for so many other business in this country.  My business has ties with the building industry. travel maps rio de janeiro When that crashed several years ago, I saw countless numbers of my customers having to close their doors and find work with someone else when they couldn t run their business anymore. There were no mergers to try to save all their employee s jobs.
I disagree with this it s how we got into all these fees in the first place. Rather than raise actual ticket prices, airlines just charge fees so ticket price is still in line with everyone else. And most customers (especially infrequent travelers) don t know any better travel maps rio de janeiro and certainly would save the $25-50.
I disagree with this it s how we got into all these fees in the first place. Rather than raise actual ticket prices, travel maps rio de janeiro airlines just charge fees so ticket price is still in line with everyone else. And most customers (especially infrequent travelers) don t know any better and certainly travel maps rio de janeiro would save the $25-50.
A sudden shutdown would mean a huge drop in capacity which won t easily be made up in the short-medium term due to other airlines not having the aircraft as well as all sorts of costs and regulatory stuff they have to deal with when starting that many new routes. This means that prices will rise dramatically, and fewer flight options for many people. Employees would be out of jobs, passengers that already have tickets will be out of luck. And in the end, there would be one fewer large carrier, which would be no better than if AA and US merged.
Why are you so surprised? Consolidation happens all the time. There used to be 10 Regional Bell telephone companies before AT T. Then deregulation came and MCI, Sprint, and a few others were born. What do you have today? Essentially AT T and Verizon. travel maps rio de janeiro Why should airlines be any different? Take a look at Europe. Air France KLM are one. British Airways and Iberia are one. Lufthansa owns Swiss Intl, Austrian Air and other airlines.
Last time we looked for a smartphone, the choice was iPhone or Samsung Galaxy travel maps rio de janeiro and the carrier AT T or Verizon. If you don t like limited choices then you need to lobby for stronger travel maps rio de janeiro anti-monopoly laws.
From an insider s perspective, Doug Parker and his merry band of fools haven t finished the last merger with America West.  While it may finally look seamless to the consumer via branding, he still hasn t merged his own unions.  There are still fences that prohibit former America west people from flying on former USAirways aircraft, and vice versa.  So, he s snubbed his nose once again at his own people and is out hob nobbing travel maps rio de janeiro with the AA unions.  Let him see how the next union contract vote goes.
People are stupid if they actually believe that the government travel maps rio de janeiro cares about preventing a monopoly travel maps rio de janeiro or oligopoly. Politicians have been bought out years ago, and it really is down to the DOT/FAA to enforce a random collection of rules regarding travel maps rio de janeiro air carriers and where/how they can fly.
I think to say AA would shut down is an oversimplification travel maps rio de janeiro of the issue.  I don t think they are anywhere near that point From what I understand, they are doing this mostly to get Union contract concessions.  And even if AA were to shut down, the court would auction travel maps rio de janeiro off their routes to other airlines, meaning few barriers for other carriers able to take on the routes.  Owned aircraft would be auctioned by the court at steep discounts to other airlines, and leased aircraft would need to be be re-leased to other airlines, likely a lower prices.
Technically, America West and USAirways was a reverse takeover rather than a true merger. Bottom line is, I wonder if the America West group would do it again in retrospect. Perhaps it would have been better to let USAirways fail and then let the remaining airlines choose to serve the abandoned routes, hire the unemployed workforce and purchase the idle aircraft in a environment travel maps rio de janeiro of true competition.
They certainly would have had an easier time with the USAirways East pilot group, allowing travel maps rio de janeiro them to be laid off and then offering to hire them at America West at the bottom of the seniority list. As it is, the sense of en