US Airways--AWA

[roz]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050620/dcm032.html?.v=13

[CaptainsWife]

Got this in an email today from ALPA:
On May 19, AWA CEO W. Douglas Parker, commenting on the merger, made the statement: "Both airlines' labor contracts are very similar so therefore neither group of employees will have to take substantial pay cuts to come to the other?s pay rates." Obviously Mr. Parker hadn't even looked at the US Airways contract before making that rather matter-of-fact statement. Compare the rates below:

B-737/A320
F/O CAPTAIN
YEAR AWA US AIR AWA US AIR
1 38.00 25.00 117.78 25.00
5 80.25 75.00 123.47 116.00
10 86.31 83.00 130.78 122.00
15 90.89 85.00 137.72 125.00


That translates into a difference of as much as $12,720/year:

YEAR AWA F/O AWA CAPTAIN

LOSS HOUR YEARLY (1000 HRS) HOUR YEARLY (1000 HRS)
1 13.00 13,000 92.78 92,780
5 5.25 5,250 7.47 7,470
10 3.31 3,310 8.78 8,780
15 5.89 5,890 12.72 12,720

Is this difference the "pain sharing" that the Chief Pilot said we all must accept, Mr. Parker seems to think that not only should we take on the risk of this merger but now we have to pay for it too. Kind of like an ESOP without the "O," ownership. It reminds us of the story of Tom Sawyer and the picket fence. At the end of the day Tom (Doug Parker) had all the neighbor kids doing his work painting the fence. But remember it gets better: he even had them pay to do his work. Look what Mr. Parker has us doing. It's time for us to leave the holding pattern and prepare for Final Approach. Don't want a pay cut? Then "JUST SAY NO!"

[roz]

They kept Al Crellin! YIKES! What is his legacy???

The following is a report card of Al CrellinÃ*s performance at US Airways:

1) From 1st to WORST in OTP
2) Highest PAWOB rate in the industry
3) Drastically low aircraft appearance standards
4) PHL 2004 Christmas Meltdown
5) Inadequate staffing models in ATOs/Res throughout the system

Al CrellinÃ*s performance has earned him an F.


I guess they figure it's cheaper to keep him around at age 63 than to pay severance. But can they keep him from making dumb decisions in the interim?


from USAirways today:
Dear America West and US Airways Employees:

Just over two months ago, we announced our plans to
merge America West and US Airways. Since that time,
we have made tremendous progress. We have reached
agreements with two additional investors, bringing the
total amount of new equity investment supporting the
transaction to $565 million. We have also obtained
clearance from the Department of Justice for our
proposed merger, and just last Friday, we obtained the
ATSB's consent for the merger. We are pleased that
our plans to close on the merger agreement by early
fall remain on track.

One important step is to determine the organizational
structure for the new airline and assign areas of
responsibility to individual executives. As we've
already announced, Doug Parker will become chairman,
president, and CEO of the merged company and Bruce
Lakefield will become vice chairman. There will be
three key areas that report to Doug: operations,
marketing and administration. We plan to recommend to
the new airline's board that three extremely talented
individuals be elected to oversee these functions:

Operations: Al Crellin, currently US Airways executive
vice president, operations, will have responsibility
for the merged airline's operations, including safety,
flight operations, maintenance, airports and inflight
services. Al will retain his title of executive vice
president, operations.

Marketing: Scott Kirby, currently America West
executive vice president, sales and marketing, will be
responsible for revenue management, information
technologies, scheduling/planning, marketing, sales,
alliances, distribution and reservations. Scott will
retain his title of executive vice president, sales
and marketing.

Administration: Jeff McClelland, currently America
West executive vice president and chief operating
officer, will become executive vice president and
chief administrative officer. America West Chief
Financial Officer Derek Kerr and General Counsel Jim
Walsh will retain their current areas of
responsibility and will report to Jeff. Other areas
reporting to Jeff will include human resources, labor
relations and the owned affiliate operations.

Two additional areas, public affairs and
communications, also will report to Doug. Overseeing
those areas, respectively, will be C.A. Howlett,
currently America West senior vice president, public
affairs and Elise Eberwein, currently America West
vice president, corporate communications.

Over the next few weeks, the rest of the officer team
will be selected and we will continue to work through
the organization to ensure we assemble an outstanding
leadership team and that everyone is given a fair
opportunity to be part of that team. Our goal is to
have the entire management team announced and ready to
go on the day we close the transaction this fall.

We are moving as quickly as we can while ensuring we
are making thoughtful decisions for the new airline.
We will continue to communicate with you often
throughout this process, so keep your questions
coming. In the meantime, thank you for continuing to
take care of our customers.


Doug Parker Bruce Lakefield
America West US Airways
Chairman, President & CEO President & CEO