Am I the only one who missed the pilots of Southwest and Airtran ratifying their seniority agreement? My excuse was a weeklong bootcamp training session at my company. What’s yours?

The highlights are that both groups overwhelming approved the agreement with in excess of 90% of both groups voting and inexcess of 80% of each voting group saying “Yes”.

This is good for Southwest, Southwest’s pilots and Airtran’s pilots. Conflict erodes profits and eroded profits at Southwest hurt everyone’s fortunes. More importantly, there is a template for coming to agreements among other unions.

Furthermore, Southwest can get on with the business of harmonizing and integrating Airtran. The sooner that gets done, the sooner the synergies of the merger are realized.

The question is this: Will the other unions avoid the mistakes that Airtran’s ALPA group made?

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Just when you think that nothing will move at American Airlines except at a glacial pace, there is a hint of movement.  American Airlines and its pilots union, APA are engaged in intensive meetings and AA has expressed a desire to the Allied Pilots Association to conclude negotiations this week. 

No, you didn’t read that wrong.

The desire is a good thing.  However, temper that with the fact that we don’t really know how good the lines of communication are between AA and the APA.  Just because desire exists doesn’t mean that one side or the other is prepared to be satisfied with what is offered.  But it’s nice to hear it expressed.

The APA has called a board meeting for this weekend in order to be ready to respond to anything arising out of the negotiations. 

Of course, as soon as APA President David Bates communicated with the membership, the dysfunctional portion of the APA got itself fired up immediately by speculating that several board members would refuse to attend the board meeting to deny a quorum.  Others insisted that the APA and AA are miles apart in any deal. 

I criticize AA quite often for not concluding new deals with its labor.  I’ll continue that criticism until its lethargic pace changes.  However, I’ll also criticize the Allied Pilots Association for acting like a pack of sophomore girls in high school.  It’s distressing to see the sabotage that takes place from time to time by the “hard liners” who firmly believe the best pilot’s salary is what the CEO makes + $1.   Sabotage in the form of insulting the people at ALPA who have made their resources available to assist negotiations.  Sabotage in the form of open and insulting criticism of its (somewhat) newly elected leadership.  Sabotage in the form of not attending board meetings to deny action on items. 

That doesn’t gain you what you want.  Actually, it works in the company’s favor as it simply delays an increase in salaries and/or benefits that would result from a new agreement.

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American Airlines will outsource heavy maintenance on (4) 757 aircraft to TIMCO in North Carolina within the next month.  You might imaginge that American’s Tulsa maintenance union thinks that is just an awful idea.

American says it needs to do this because of a backlog of maintenance at its Tulsa center and the local TWU says that American knew about this maintenance more than a year ago and failed to do anything about it including considering the union’s proposal to keep the maintenance in Tulsa.

Making decisions like this at an airline always involves more variables than most can consider.  Do you pay overtime to get the work done internally?  Do you have the space to do the work internally?  Is your labor force fatigued and unable to keep pace?  Is the costs to do it in house higher than outsourcing?   Do you want to try outsourcing to see if pursuing a long term outsourcing strategy is worthwhile on a grander scale?

Is this a move by AA to pursue outsourcing?  Actually, I kind of doubt it.  AA’s maintenance facilities have done their work not just cost effectively but in concert with the unions and the results have shown.  Right down to its labor force finding additional cost savings both in time and money as well as showing that AA could save more money by doing certain small items like “tuning” the engines more frequently for more fuel savings. 

I think that AA just also recognizes that having a backlog of maintenance on aircraft could cost them flights and those flights represent revenue.  On the other hand, the unions have to make noise about it because they are unions, they want to protect jobs and they want to keep their jobs. 

The real failure here is in not simply reaching an agreement with the unions over this issue quietly.  It sets up the perception that executive leadership isn’t listening and why reinforce that perception among its labor force?

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US Airways and its pilots union, USAPA, got a hearing to discuss what US Airways says is an illegal work slowdown.   In that hearing, the judge pretty much agreed with US Airways and told USAPA to cut it out and get their membership in order.   What the judge actually said was:

“USAPA and its members, agents, and employees, and all persons and organizations acting by, in concert with, through, or under it, or by and through its order, are enjoined from permitting, instigating, authorizing, encouraging, participating in, approving, or continuing any interference with Plaintiff’s airline operations, including, but not limited to, any slowdown, strike, work stoppage, sick-out, work to rule campaign, or any concerted refusal to perform normal pilot operations in violation of the RLA, pending a hearing on the permanent injunction.”

Beyond that, the judge also ordered the union to make a concerted effort to communicate to its membership that such activities were illegal and punishable. 

This is where USAPA wants to pay real close attention to things because it was the APA (American Airlines pilots) who got hit with a large judgement against it for the very same kinds of actions in the 1990s.   There is ample precedent here and it will be the pilots who pay for that kind of judgement against them. 

So here is my question:  When does USAPA quit acting like children and get to work representing and, more importantly, *leading* its membership to a unified seniority list and a new contract with US Airways?  What’s the plan?  When does action take place?  Right now, if USAPA got its act together and started down that path, union members *might* see a new contract by 2015.   That’s only 10 years after the merger.

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ALPA, Air Lines Pilots Association, is the central figure in the history of organizing pilots into a union.  It was and remains the biggest influence on the conditions under which pilots fly.

Question:  Can you guess how old ALPA is?

The answer after the fold:  (more…)

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The Dallas Morning News Aviation Blog has a story about a memo from American Airlines’ TWU leadership warning its membership to not engage in any stealth work slowdowns.   Specifically, TWU representative Robert Gless says:

“Remember: anyone who participates in a job action would more likely be playing the role of someone who weakens TWU rather than supports it. DO NOT participate in any job action; instead participate in supporting your union. We strongly urge you to continue to work in your usual way and not to engage in any refusal to work overtime or D1 or any slowdown.”

The subtext of this is likely something along the lines of “We’re getting somewhere so don’t go and screw it up with shennanigans.”  I’m also sure the TWU is fully aware of the kind of court action that could be brought against it for such actions and the penalties that could result.

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The National Mediation Board is stepping away from talks between American Airlines and the Transport Workers Union and this is going to hurt both parties.  In addition, I think this is an indication of just where talks may go between American Airlines and its other unions.

The NMB said that “the amount of time expended in these mediated sessions, insufficient progress and insufficient hope for progress, the NMB could not justify scheduling future mediated sessions at this time. “

This could describe progress in union talks involving American Airlines across the board. 

Sadly, I think AA and its unions will continue to argue that its the other side instead of recognizing that failure to come to an agreement is badly damaging both parties.  American Airlines is hurt by the clear inability to bring a new wage and benefits structure to its operating model and employees are hurt by working under agreements that are diminished in value every year they go unmodified. 

I put the problem on American, however.  It’s the company’s duty to provide leadership to its employees whether they are represented by unions or not.  Ultimately, the buck stops with executive leadership and executive leadership isn’t finding any new ways to engage and lead their staff.

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The Allied Pilots Association, union of pilots with American Airlines, has never been very well organized but now they’re out to give USAPA (US Airways Allied Pilots Association) a run for their money in the stupid department.

Chairmen of certain bases in the North East and who are on the APA board of directors went rogue by writing and then sharing email that heavily criticized ALPA and ALPA’s providing services to APA in the negotiations with American Airlines.  The short version is that ALPA decides to pick up its toys and go home by terminating its services to APA after the email was circulated, commented on and not refuted by anyone at APA except the APA President and his team.  If you want the full details, read THIS and THIS  entry from the Dallas Morning News Aviation Blog.

I do not blame ALPA and its leader, Lee Moak, one tiny bit.  No good deed goes unpunished when dealing with APA and ALPA was merely the latest victim.  Why engage when the organization your servicing has a board populated by people who all think they’re in charge and they’re vision of leadership is the right one?  It’s a no win situation.

This is highly representative of the behaviour that APA President David Bates has tried to abate.  It was his promise when campaigning for the job that dysfunctional behaviour would be addressed.  Bates & his team have actually worked hard at this and everyone agrees that negotiations between APA and American Airlines were finally moving along productively.

Now APA is faced with having to regroup and find someone else to negotiate on their behalf and has to prove to American Airlines and the National Mediation Board that it can manage itself.  Right now, I don’t think they can do that.  So these rogue base leaders have shot themselves in the foot . . . again.

Which is why I now compare them to USAPA.  The self harm being done in both organizations is astounding.

Ironically, ALPA has some of the best leadership going for itself these days and Lee Moak is the guy who understands the issues that unions face with today’s airlines.  APA, under its current structure, will never get what it wants because it resembles a farce and nothing more. 

The very best thing that could happen is for the silent majority to start reorganizing pilots to be under ALPA and rid themselves of the non-leadership that APA provides.  Call it a coup.  Trying to work with rogue base chiefs is never going to yield success.

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It’s been quite a while since the Continental United merger was announced and pilots from both sides are *still* negotiating their integration.   This stands in stark contrast to the SWA / Airtran deal announced a few days ago and completed in far less time than the ContiUnited merger has been going on.  It’s been over a year now since the ContiUnited merger was announced.

This is about pay, seniority and job security.  Both sides of the table have given up significant pay over the past 10 years or so and both want a raise that shares in the wealth.  United has more senior pilots and that’s a threat to Continental pilots.  Continental pilots have enjoyed quite a bit of job security as a result of scope clauses that have limited Continental to using regional airlines for 50 seat missions or less. 

Mostly, neither side wants to budge.  I think the Continental pilots have viewed this merger as more threatening than any anticipated.  Despite the appearance of this being Continental with the United name to the public, more and more of the United model has been retained.  Any attempts to “outsource” Continental flying to United has been stopped in courtroom skirmishes by Continental pilots who don’t want to see regional jets flying *their* routes. 

So what breaks the impasse?  It’s hard to say.  There isn’t much One Love going on here despite the fact that both are represented by ALPA.  United pilots are very militant and Continental pilots are very concerned.  Failure to reach an agreement on much of anything here has caused these talks to look stagnant. 

ContiUnited can’t start benefiting from this merger until it has a merged single certificate as an airline and until it can flow flight crews between both airlines.  That day isn’t in sight as of today. 

Furthermore, management can’t afford to agree to an unsustainable raise for both sides given the current economic climate.  So there are few incentives that management can offer to stimulate an agreement among the pilots. 

Is this going to be another US Airways / America West problem?  Right now, I don’t think so.  It already doesn’t represent the smooth transition that Delta and Northwest enjoyed but it can be wrung out.   The problem here is that there is no momentum.  Continental pilots felt Continental was doing just fine on its own and that they were doing better than most pilots out there.  United pilots are out “to get theirs” at almost any cost.  Someone, somewhere, has to find something for both parties to agree upon and get some momentum going for an agreement.

Continuing these talks for years or coming to an agreement that falls apart hurts the pilots the most.  Senior Continental pilots are going to need to have some assurances with respect to seniority that go beyond “date of hire” integration.  Pay is the easy part here.  Job security and seniority are the hard parts.  Seniority in particular because a Continental pilot that is, say, bumped from his job as a Captain on a 777 stands to lose quite a bit of pay. 

I suspect we’ll see these jobs “fenced” at the airlines with a date sometime in the near future (3 to 5 years) of breaking down those fences so that pilots can bid for jobs they want on each other’s equipment. 

How does all of this happen?  It should happen with Jeff Smisek, CEO of ContiUnited.  It’s always dangerous for  a company leader to get directly involved but he needs to find a way of assuring both sides and an incentive for them to agree upon something.  That incentive is going to cost but the sooner he finds it, the sooner United starts making consistent profits.

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It’s somewhat difficult to believe that the America West / US Airways merger was closed in 2005.  It’s 2011 and the US Airways pilots still don’t have a unified contract to work from.  There is no doubt that a good deal of primary fault lies with the pilots themselves who:

• Couldn’t agree on how to merge a seniority list between the two unions.
• Couldn’t agree that ALPA was their representative.
• Elected a new union in place of ALPA in order for the US East pilots to take over the union.
• Sued each other multiple times.

Now they’re suing US Airways under the supposition that US Airways has been materially altering the contract under which they’ve been working by unilaterally imposing changes.  US Airways says they think the suit has no merit.  I think the suit has merit but before it can progress, I think the pilots need to get their house in order first.  Without that done, who has standing to bring such a suit?

The pilots, both East and West, need to agree on union representation and seniority merging and then get to the business of negotiating a contract.  Sadly, the business of negotiating a contract can take from 2 to 4 years and that means this may not be done before 2015 or 10 years after the merger.  You can’t blame US Airways for taking advantage of that situation either.  Who wouldn’t?  It keeps costs low and they’ve clearly found a way to operate their airline on two different contracts.

The biggest enemy to US Airways pilots is the pilots themselves.

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There has been a new agreement found between British Airways and cabin crew union Unite to settle the long running fight between the two.  This stops strikes set to begin again at least until after the union itself votes to accept the deal.  Union leaders are recommending agreement.

The breakthrough essentially comes as a result of British Airways agreeing to restoring full seniority perks it withdrew during the conflict.  New BA CEO, Keith Williams and former Unite negotiator and now leader, Len McCluskey are receiving credit for the new agreement.

I’ve got three thoughts on this:  First, Willie Walsh (now CEO of International Airlines Group, holding company of BA) should have made this deal last year.  It cost nothing and it was fairly punitive.  Second, if you think that Keith Williams did this without OK from Willie Walsh, you’re just kidding yourself and that makes the fact that this has gone on as long as it has somewhat silly.  Finally, this isn’t over until it’s over.  The union has a history of militant behaviour in this conflict and despite the leadership recommending acceptance, I wouldn’t count this as done until it does win an approval vote.  Furthermore, even if it does win approval, I’ll wager that it will be by slim margins at best. 

Once done, the airline and the union need to restore not just peace but harmony and take a long look at how this is avoided in the future.  That’s a tall task but necessary in this economic climate that airlines operate in.

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The US Airline Pilots Association representing all of US Airways pilots is calling for the resignation of US Airways Vice President of Safety and Regulatory Compliance Paul Morell citing unaddressed lapses in safety as the primary reason.

This is what happens when you don’t have respectable relations with your labor union groups.  Safety is popular target for airline unions because it is very difficult for the airline to address the topic without appearing to be on the defense for something that may not have even been going on.

And airline unions target their company when they haven’t gotten a deal and it looks as if they aren’t going to get one soon.  It applies pressure. 

Is US  Airways unsafe?  No, it isn’t.  The airline is clearly running a safe operation.  Whether or not it could be even safer is a question I cannot answer (and nor can the airline pilots either.)  That calls for an objective third party audit of US Airways safety.  Coincidentally, it appears that US Airways declined to participate in such a study because that is what USAPA talks about in its public complaints.

I am a big advocate for there being as much transparency and objectivity possible in evaluating safety at airlines.  I think participation in programs where pilots can self report safety incidents without consequence is an excellent idea and I firmly believe that airlines should participate wherever possible in third party studies. 

That said, US Airways may have had an excellent reason for declining participation and we’ll leave that up to them for a response.

I have to take a shot at USAPA for this:  It is no less responsible to make safety a political issue than it is for an airline to decline participation in third party safety studies.  There are plenty of issues to talk about but casting aspersions on the safety of airline to apply pressure is over the line.

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It’s always fun to come up with contractions of names for airlines that merge.  My newest is Britberia Airlines, British Airways and Iberia Airlines.  Good news for those two:  they now have shareholder approval of their merger and expect to conclude the deal in January.  The new entity will be called International Airlines Group and it will manage both the British Airways and Iberia brands.  I wonder if someone at AA didn’t help with the new name as that is about as bland as one can get.

Willie Walsh, who will serve as over-arching chairman of this new group, says it’s been a good year for British Airways with this merger and their recent anti-trust approval to work with American Airlines.   While it may not have been their worst year, I don’t think it’s a “good” year.  They’ve still got a fight going on with their cabin crew union that really needs to get solved.

The new group still falls behind Lufthansa and AirFrance/KLM but it does make BA/IB a better player against those two but with a weakness or two as well:  They’re still dependent on a growth constrained hub at Heathrow airport and their ability to expand will lay with the Iberia hub in Madrid.  The other two SuperAirlines have got hubs in better places for more of Europe’s traffic.  Hubs in places like Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Berlin and Zurich.  They’re just more centrally located.

Walsh says future growth will be focused in Madrid but I don’t see how that helps BA in its home territory of the UK.  How is it more attractive to take a flight from Manchester to Madrid to go overseas to many places?  I think this union needs a northern European partner and I think they’ll seek one out once this merger is fully ironed out.  If not a European partner, then a different Ireland/UK hub is probably needed. 

Madrid and Spain seem logical for connections to Africa, South America and perhaps the middle East or even India.  The UK is a logical connection point for destinations within the UK, northern Europe and North America.  But growth is needed in the UK and Heathrow can’t continue to be the hub for all things BA.

Perhaps the Irish government will sell Aer Lingus to the group.  Dublin could be a nice gateway city for trans-atlantic flights and connections to airports throughout Ireland and the UK.

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United Airlines (ContiUnited aka Continental and United Airlines merged) has a problem.   Continental pilots have enjoyed one of the most restrictive scope clauses in the industry so far and United pilots have seen quite a bit of mainline flying move from their group to being outsourced to regional airlines flying the CRJ-700/900.   Both parties are unhappy with outsourcing the flying and both see the merger and need for a new contract as the perfect opportunity to gain ground on this issue.

At the same time, United needs to keep its costs in line with rivals Delta and American Airlines and, if possible, lower.  To do that under the present day model, that means outsourcing even more flying to regional airlines.

As usual, I would suggest that both parties need to meet in the middle a bit.  Pilots (and other flight crew) could stand to permit lower wagese for this “regional” flying to keep it “in house”.  United needs to recognize that this is about job security and these pilots want some assurance that their seniority means something in bad times.  Neither party is going to get what they want or even a majority of what they want. 

And if this conflict blooms into a multi-year negotiation, things won’t be good for either side.  Pilots will lose out on salary increase opportunities and United will lose out on the synergies that this merger is supposed to provide. 

One solution could be to retain the 50 seat Continental scope clause but pilots permit a lower entry level wage for 51+ seat aircraft or even perhaps a “B” wage scale until a pilot moves into generally accepted mainline aircraft (say 125+ seats.)  The pilots could be permitted to use their seniority to retain a job in the lower pay scale in the event of a downturn and bad times displacing only the newest pilots and at the same time the airline could benefit from being able to use regional airlines for truly regional flying. 

CEO Jeff Smisek would be wise to get creative rather than tough here.  This is a real obstacle to realizing the benefits of his merger.

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Ground workers at Delta (and who were unionized at Northwest airlines) have rejected unionization at the combined airline by a similar vote (52% against) as the flight attendants making it a “win” for Delta. 

Everyone likes that Delta has so far maintained the status quo here although I’m sure the former Northwest employees continue to feel uneasy about this.  I think it’s good for both parties so far but let’s realize that one reason the elections have gone the way they have is the numerical superiority that original Delta employees have.  To be fair, they vote non-union because their experiences at Delta have been largely positive and fair although it would also be right to point out that most of them have never known a different environment. 

The key here is that Delta still needs to work on winning over these Northwest employees.  They still need to reassure these people and, if anything, work even harder at ensuring their needs are met and that they are being treated fairly in the grand scheme of the new airline.  That doesn’t mean they have to bow down to them.  It simply means that people can tell when they are and aren’t being treated fairly. 

Part of treating Northwest airline people fairly means listening to their concerns and accounting for why those concerns exist:  they don’t have a similar history of treatment from airline management at Northwest.   Actions speak louder than words and Delta management would be wise to use that as their mission statement going forward with all their labor groups.

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British Airways cabin crew union, Unite, has decided that it cannot recommend the latest deal  and put it to a vote among its membership.  Now it wants more talks with British Airways.

And I would like to offer this:  That’s bargaining in bad faith.

When you are the leadership of a union and engage in talks that result in a proposed agreement and you agree to put it to a vote, you damn well put it to a vote.  You don’t change your mind and then ask for more talks on threat of another strike.  Being weak and changing your mind just damages the process for both sides.  If your membership doesn’t like it, they won’t vote for it.  The outcome is the same but it’s an outcome that results from an appropriate course of action rather then a cowardly one.

I didn’t like BA’s punitive moves against the cabin crew and I did think that gave Unite the upper hand somewhat.  Now I think they’re both behaving atrociously and contrary to the spirit of what it means to negotiate a resolution.  One thing I can’t criticize British Airways for is being cowardly and indecisive.  Unite loses the upper hand here and goes back to wallowing in deep mud.

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Damned if you don’t.  American’s labor woes are getting in the way of both the company and labor moving forward.  It’s a Mexican stand-off at this point.  Management has the argument that any higher labor costs would result in the company losing money again and potentially failing.  If it runs close to the line of failing, it’s either a liquidation (unlikely) or a bankruptcy reorgnization (very likely) or a purchase (somewhat likely).  In any of those situations, labor stands to lose and lose big.

Labor, on the other hand, has a knife to the throat(s) of current management.  If they win big gains, it’s the end of the current regime.  If any of the unions (particularly cabin crew or pilots) win the right to “self help” aka a strike, it’s the end of the current regime.  And the the end of the current regime may mean a reorgnization ultimately as well. 

Neither side can necessarily afford to stick with their current leadership.  AA’s management has allowed this to fester for a very long time and, I think, has gone past the time that would be regarded as “reasonable” to come to some agreement that would allow the company to move forward.  At least in the eyes of many shareholders.  Likewise, the unions don’t have a deal and don’t have a prospect of a deal and with the stance of “all or nothing”, stand to harm their memberships far more than help them. 

We’ve already seen the pilot’s leadership change to a more reasonable president but I see no evidence of that potentially happening among the other groups.  Not right now. 

If the brinksmanship continues, look for a regime change at AA.  If there is a regime change at AA that does not result in movement in the agreements, look for regime change of the leadership of flight attendants.  Then sit back and wait for the bankruptcy filing for reorgnization.

What seems even more dismal is this question:  Who wants to buy AA or American Eagle?

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And I’ll admit that I’m mildly surprised by this development.

It turns out that unionization of Delta flight attendants was rejected by a vote of 53% against the idea.  I speculated in a post found HERE that this might actually happen but I did wonder about the results since those former Northwest Airlines flight attendants are a battle hardened crew.

This is good news.  It’s good news for Delta flight attendants and it is great news for Delta management.  The best thing management could do is to make sure they continue to treat their cabin crew with respect.  Keep them compensated well and ensure those needs are getting met.   Most of all, don’t gloat and don’t threaten.  Management got what it wanted and it is best to be magnanimous about it.

I don’t blame the NWA cabin crew for wanting a union.  They needed one when doing combat with NWA management.  I think that the movement to put a union in place will actually slow some as long as management stays the course. 

In some ways, the people who get dinged the most from this development is American Airlines.  Why?  Because Delta will continue to get better productivity and enjoy more harmonious labor relations than AA and AA has been counting on the new SuperLegacies getting hit over the head.

In addition, to those who believed the new labor organization would be easier at airlines as result of the rules changes, I think you’re wrong.  This most recent vote showed that flight attendants, even ones who weren’t that emotional about the decision, do know how to vote when it counts.

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Southwest has been pretty candid with people attending the Southwest media day and has made a number of comments and announcements that offer more clarity than we’ve seen in a while.

First up:  Southwest and Volaris Airlines will begin interlining on December 1st.  This is quicker than I would have guessed based on the radio silence we’ve heard on this subject for months now.  It’s not a codeshare because you won’t be able to buy a Southwest ticket to fly on a Volaris flight.  You will, however, be able to seemlessly transition between a Southwest flight and a Volaris flight to Mexico.  You wouldn’t be able to do codeshares at present anyway since Mexico’s air traffic system got downgraded to a Category 2 recently. 

Southwest sees the seniority list integration between its pilots and Airtran pilots as their number one issue.  I agree.  The rational people out there would have you believe that Airtran pilots should be happy no matter what since it is almost guaranteed that they’ll get a pay raise with this merger.  Sadly, rational thought doesn’t enter into the equation when it comes to these discussions.  In addition, pay raises aren’t the only factor when it comes to seniority.  Seniority also determines the type of aircraft you’ll fly and where you’ll be based out of.   I doubt it will be a “date of hire” integration and I doubt it will be a mere stapling integration either.  There will probably be some sort of weighted integration and possibly jobs in the ATL area (and perhaps a few other bases) will be “fenced” off for Airtran pilots for a period of time. 

Southwest says it will be charging $5 for WiFi access on its aircraft.  This is pretty cheap compared to the fees for Aircell on other airlines.  Apparently Southwest has done their homework and determined that’s the sweet spot for maximizing “take” on each flight.  There will be no graduated fee for varying durations of flights.  Southwest doesn’t know what it will do with Airtran aircraft equipped with Aircell because they don’t know what those contracts look like yet and they won’t until the merger is consummated.  I suspect that Aircell will remain in place until those contracts expire and then they will be replaced with R0w44 systems to harmonize the fleet.  That would be a good news for Row44 who hasn’t gained much in the way of market share when compared to Aircell.

Finally, Southwest thinks Atlanta could quickly become its biggest city once it has finished its merger with Airtran.  Las Vegas currently is the largest but Southwest execs see lots of additional route opportunity in Atlanta already.  They’ve identified at least 2 dozen new destinations that could be served and Atlanta is already pretty big for Airtran.  Look for more frequency and a net gain on routes once Southwest really takes over.

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In the world of airline union labor leaders, there is one guy who has stood out among all the others.  Lee Moak of Delta Airlines.

Captain Moak, leader of the Delta Airlines’ pilots union when Delta merger with Northwest Airlines, has consistently shown that he understands the changing business model of the airline industry.  He has embraced the idea that mergers don’t have to be anti-union and was critical in the peaceful integration of pilot’s seniority lists during the Delta/Northwest merger.   An almost unheard of accomplishment.

Moak approaches his leadership as an obligation to engage with parties as opposed to the far more common tactic of confrontation.   He allows his actions to speak for him rather than rhetoric and that has allowed him to succeed where many others have simply maintained a status quo that hasnt been working for years.

Now he’ll head the national leadership of ALPA and this is good for a lot of airlines.  He’ll have the opportunity to set a different tone and, perhaps, mentor others into his engagement approach. 

When I say it’s good for airlines, I mean that it is good for both labor and management.  All too often, there is little engagement between those two parties and way too much conflict.  Talking is good and moving off rhetoric and talking points towards real compromise and finding solutions to new problems will be good for everyone. 

It should be very satisfying to see him lead ALPA and he’s a critical person to watch in this industry.

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