All I know is that UA and AA are in the grip of unions who appear to be in it to squeeze as much out of the airline till it breaks, or another government handout props up the old war horse. The union has padded out the airlines with peopole it they dont need. case in point - wing walkers. Fully trained (and paid) engineers walking the planes out of the gate, to check they dont hit anything - all well and good. Until you relaise that all the gate employee's wotk for the company. Where as in most of Europe we have groups like serviceair who take care of all that, and more importantly compete. The quote below is from a column by a guy name joe his site is
www.joesentme.com
When asked why they were losing out to Jetblue and Southwest, the senior exec said 'We arent in that business' How true, they are in the business of making money.
Jon