The New American
 

Today is December 9. Congratulations to U.S. Airways and AMR for pulling off this merger so quickly, especially in the face of last minute intervention for the fools at DOJ. IMO, the concessions agreed to by New American to get DOJ off their backs, are not major issues, especially for the longer term.
Someone should begin a small pool about how many years/months it will take The New American to fully operate as a single carrier (other than a few paint jobs). By that I mean fully integrating their fleets, their operations staffs, to fly under a single set of SOPs, reservations and benefits systems as well a fully melding ALL of the many employee groups. (The New American will have roughly 100,000 employees and easily become the world's largest airline!)
I'm a people person, not a corporate bean counter! My single prayer is that the working folks, especially the two pilot's groups, where seniority seems to govern every aspect of their professional lives, are treated fairly and with respect. IMO, no pilot should be forced to accept a seat or equipment demotion, an involuntary base change or a reduction in hours or hourly pay. I am somewhat encouraged that as of today, former U.S. Airways pilots apparently received a nice increase in their hourly rates of pay. Would anyone care to share thoughts about any expected bumps in the road and/or who long it will take to fully meld the pilot's seniority lists. How about complete integration of everything else that makes up such a huge airline? If you have thoughts, please share them especially about the folks whose office is the pointy end of the airplane. Speak up!:D