{"id":6084,"date":"2012-04-23T11:51:05","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T16:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=6084"},"modified":"2012-04-23T11:51:05","modified_gmt":"2012-04-23T16:51:05","slug":"merger-with-us-airways-might-be-a-challenge-could-save-some-aa-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/04\/23\/merger-with-us-airways-might-be-a-challenge-could-save-some-aa-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"Merger With US Airways Might be a Challenge, Could Save Some AA Jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6085\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"A US Airways tail rest on the tarmac near two American Airlines planes.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/04\/airline-merger.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6085\" title=\"US Airways and American merger?\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/04\/airline-merger.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/04\/airline-merger.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/04\/airline-merger-150x90.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jim Watson \/ AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A US Airways tail rest on the tarmac near two American Airlines planes.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>US Airways has made deals with labor unions at American Airlines to win support for a merger.<\/p><p>A merger could save almost half of the 13,000 jobs likely to be eliminated by American, whose parent company, AMR Corp., is operating under bankruptcy protection.<\/p><p>But a merger might not be so easy.<\/p><p><!--more--><\/p><p>American&#8217;s unions represent 55,000 pilots, flight attendants and ground workers. The three unions <a href=\"http:\/\/travel.usatoday.com\/flights\/story\/2012-04-20\/US-Airways-makes-deals-with-3-AMR-unions\/54431774\/1\">endorse<\/a> a potential merger with US Airways, but the plan would need the support of AMR\u2019s creditors, management and board of directors, the Associated Press <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tulsaworld.com\/business\/article.aspx?subjectid=585&articleid=20120420_585_0_DALLAS60991&rss_lnk=1\">reported<\/a> on Friday.<\/p><p>There are other challenges, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tulsaworld.com\/business\/article.aspx?subjectid=585&articleid=20120422_45_A1_Amerge513434&rss_lnk=1\">reports<\/a> the <em>Tulsa World<\/em>\u2019s D.R. Stewart, including combining two different aircraft fleets and route systems, and integrating separate workforces and their respective unions.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;What on earth are they going to do with all those unions &#8211; the Transport Workers Union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, and the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents (American&#8217;s regional airline affiliate) American Eagle pilots,&#8221; said Eric Smith, a Pittsburgh bankruptcy and aviation attorney.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>US Airways had a hard time integrating workforces with America West Airlines when the two merged in 2005, Smith told the paper.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Nearly all of America West&#8217;s employees were junior to US Airways&#8217; workers, news reports show, which made merging airline seniority lists a nightmare.<\/p><p>Smith said he expects similar difficulties if American and US Airways merge.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>US Airways Group Inc.\u2019s CEO, Doug Parker, said a merger could save about 6,200 jobs at American, the AP reports. AMR Corp. CEO Thomas Horton would rather his company remain independent, \u201cbut is open to a merger after his company emerges from bankruptcy protection,\u201d according to the AP.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Friday\u2019s gambit by US Airways and the American Airlines unions could complicate Horton\u2019s strategy, however.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Airways has made deals with labor unions at American Airlines to win support for a merger.A merger could save almost half of the 13,000 jobs likely to be eliminated by American, whose parent company, AMR Corp., is operating under bankruptcy protection.But a merger might not be so easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":6085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[301,300],"tags":[293,294,363],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6084"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6084"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6093,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6084\/revisions\/6093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}