US Airways likely to stop flying this fall.

[evansb]

US Airways likely to stop flying this fall (http://news.yahoo.com/us-airways-likely-stop-flying-fall-182049654--finance.html)

[skyhighfallguy]

you all realize that USAIRways and American Airlines have merged and after a certain period of adjustment the name USAIRways will go away.

this doesn't mean much except that the paint will say AMERICAN on the side of the plane eventually.

[zondaracer]

You know that the "Cactus" callsign used by US Airways was discontinued last month? Did you know that the US Airways callsign and US Airways three ICAO code were discontinued in 2008 and that they had been using the America West callsign and code for the last 7 years? Now, everything is merged into American Airlines as previously mentioned and the US Airways brand will live on in history books. Nothing to see here, move on.

[Zaphod Beblebrox]

US Airways and American came under one Operating Certificate in Mid April. I still have trouble hearing American. It's easy to say but I have not trained my ears to hear it, so I miss calls. The next hurdle is the Reservation System. US Airways will continue to ticket until they have a single Res system.

If you think about it from a marketing standpoint the Reservation system is the most important element of the airline. It's where all the money is. An airline doesn't make money when you fly, it makes money when you give the reservation agent your credit card number. If you buy a ticket well in advance of travel the company earns money on the float. Providing the actual service is on the other side of the ledger. So it can be considered that the Reservation System = Revenue. Flying = Cost.

Many contractual changes that were authorized by both APA, USAPA, AFA, and APFA will not be realized until there is a single Res System. The Res system is not just for sales but it tells the company how many seats to sell in what markets etc.. It is the money predictor and tells the company where the sales are. This is the system that allows the company to monitor and match the market on a city pair basis. Res System drives the airline and all the other systems are below that.

As a personal prediction I believe that most of the operational / contractual changes will take place on the Legacy AA side. The reason for this is that the US side went through bankruptcy twice and management has the operation they way they want it. The old East LOA93, gained in the second bankruptcy, gave the company what they wanted in the form of contractual changes. The East contact had provisions for PBS scheduling for years but it was never utilized. Once the new Res System is in place PBS will follow. PBS will drive domicile staffing and scheduling.

I would predict that full operational integration will first be by metal and not by crew. By that I mean that crews will continue to originate and fly trips from their traditional domiciles and when they pass through a hub, a West, East or AA crew will pick up the airplane and move on. The flying will be integrated in that manner first with a single seniority list and full integration by domicile and system bid later on. I have no inside knowledge of this but they have been doing this East / West for years and it gives them the flexibility they need without generating excessive training events.

This evidence of this prediction is supported by the fact that the training backlog is already high due to retirements, the removal of one MD-80 from the system per week and the scheduled retirement of the 757. That is straining both training departments as it is. If you add implementing one list with all the associated movement for seniority or location the training department would be backed up for over a year with no associated increase in productivity.

The Res System is the next big hurdle and at that time US Airways will completely disappear. Complete integration from the pilot standpoint may take longer.