There is an internal letter from within American Airlines being circulated on various news sites written by John Hale, American Airlines chief pilot.  This letter casts doubt that AA pilots would support the idea of a merger between American Airlines and US Airways.

First and foremost, I don’t know how much credibility I can give the characterizations in the letter since it does, after all, come from the one pilot in American Airlines with a strong incentive to calm concerns coming from the American Airlines executive team.  He is answerable to them much more than his fellow pilots in the job he holds.

Second, I don’t think pilots like any mergers really.  The seniority issues are very stressing.  But in this case, I don’t know that AA pilots have quite as much to fear as in many mergers.  AA pilots are much more senior than US Airways pilots in general.  Furthermore, US Airways pilots don’t have seniority integration and new contract.  But if there were a merger, the pilots who are divided at US Airways are vastly outnumbered by AA pilots in sheer quantities.  With quantity comes power.

Third, I think executives and other parties are quite afraid of Doug Parker.  It’s obvious that the AA executive team would prefer to be the leads in any merger.  It’s also obvious that they aren’t in a good position to make that demand.  Doug Parker and his team make a very strong operational team and that alone speaks to opportunity from such a merger.  They should be afraid of him:  He knows how to run an airline in today’s environment.

And the AA executive team should be afraid of US Airways.  They’ve learned from other mistakes, they have cash and they have a track record for running an airline that is disadvantaged compared to other legacy airlines and with a fractured labor group.  US Airways makes money *despite* having two pilots groups and two flight attendant groups.  They can manage new parties in that mix.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax