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Big news for the traveling public and airline industry. Could be bad, could be good. I am a frequent AA flyer and I thought the new American was getting it right, and doing a pretty good job and actually starting to make money. I just hope the premium AA product stays the same, and orders for AA's jets are not affected too much and that AA's frequent flyer program stays just about the same. I have never been a fan of US Airways. For the long run it is better business for the two airlines but probably not a good thing for the customers.
"Under the agreement, American and US Airways will sell to low-cost carriers 104 slots at Washington's Reagan National, 34 slots at New York's LaGuardia, and rights to gates at Boston's Logan, Chicago's O'Hare, Dallas' Love Field, Los Angeles and Miami airports."
As for the hubs: It won't surprise me if PHX sees some serious downgrades in a few years, CLT might lost some international flying. But besides for those two I think the hubs compliment each other nicely. With the size of this airline, I doubt we will see any de-hubbing like we have with Delta at MEM and CVG. But certainly except to see some cuts at CLT and PHX, maybe even domestically at JFK. And of course DCA will be smaller due to the slots going up for sale.
I think you'll see all the bad things alluded to in your post. US Air has some of the worst iron in the sky after Delta, and I'd expect a major change to their reward programs.
I'd imagine CLT is going to get a big downgrade as MIA/BOS is the better combo. Better access to Latin America from MIA and better hops to Europe from BOS. DFW and ORD will still be the big boys for AA, just like IAH and ORD are for United. AA owns DFW, and having to part with gates at DAL is nothing. It's basically a SWA airport just like Hobby in Houston.
The big win will be that they'll pick up a number of gates in IAH, which is pretty much a *A fortress hub. If they make the fares competitive enough, they'll pick up people willing to hub in to DFW.
Let the airfare rises begin. I have yet to see any benefit of all these mergers except for smaller planes on alot of routes, so less seats = higher $$$
I think you'll see all the bad things alluded to in your post. US Air has some of the worst iron in the sky after Delta, and I'd expect a major change to their reward programs.
I'd imagine CLT is going to get a big downgrade as MIA/BOS is the better combo. Better access to Latin America from MIA and better hops to Europe from BOS. DFW and ORD will still be the big boys for AA, just like IAH and ORD are for United. AA owns DFW, and having to part with gates at DAL is nothing. It's basically a SWA airport just like Hobby in Houston.
The big win will be that they'll pick up a number of gates in IAH, which is pretty much a *A fortress hub. If they make the fares competitive enough, they'll pick up people willing to hub in to DFW.
BOS not much of a hub for US and not a hub at all for AA. I don't see much happening in BOS. JFK and Philly will take care of Europe and the Northeast. I don't see PHX lasting more than 5 years though. But I hope we are both wrong about the frequent flyer programs and the company cultures. I think the "New AA" was heading in a good direction. Now it's US invading, probably not so great.
BOS not much of a hub for US and not a hub at all for AA. I don't see much happening in BOS. JFK and Philly will take care of Europe and the Northeast. I don't see PHX lasting more than 5 years though. But I hope we are both wrong about the frequent flyer programs and the company cultures. I think the "New AA" was heading in a good direction. Now it's US invading, probably not so great.
I hope I'm wrong, but I look at the UA/CO merger and everything good seemed to get washed down the pooper, while the crud floated to the top. US Air is still fractured too. Between the AWA and US Air merger there's still rifts.
I hope I'm wrong, but I look at the UA/CO merger and everything good seemed to get washed down the pooper, while the crud floated to the top. US Air is still fractured too. Between the AWA and US Air merger there's still rifts.
I hope you are wrong too. But it is very possible it goes this way too. The best thing American and US Airways flyers can hope for is that US/AA see the issues that happened with DL/NW and UA/CO and try to see that it does not happen with them.
Wonder if American will continue hiring pilots....Although, US Airways is hiring pilots still, even though the pilot groups (US Airways and America West) are still not merged into one unified pilot group, so the East (Airways) side was hiring while the West (America West) side still had pilots on furlough...and now, American will be adding into the mix, gonna be a real interesting ride for these companies.
I'm all for consolidation, maybe this will allow the airlines to charge a fare that will produce profits without making $0.10 per flight, 4,000 times/day. But we'll see.
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The airlines won today.
