Philadelphia International Airport

Union support of US Airways' quest to take over American is a first step in a long merger process

Public support by American’s unions of a merger with US Airways is an unprecedented move, and reflects the years-long frustration that has built among American’s employees towards previous and current management. The employees see an opportunity to start fresh, and work with a management team that will cease blaming labour for the carrier’s plight. US Airways sees an opportunity to completely overhaul American’s lacklustre revenue management that has consistently produced results that pale in comparison to its peers. But many questions remained unanswered over the perceived strength of a combined network, and many tasks have to be completed before a merger gets remotely close to reality.

US Airways formally declared it was examining its options regarding American earlier this year, and tactically began courting the carrier’s unions to gain support for a merger of the two companies that would entail US Airways’ management taking charge of the new American. Unlike US Airways' attempt to take over Delta Air Lines in 2006 when it was restructuring under Chapter 11 and Delta employees rallied to block the deal, American’s employees are exhausted with methods management has adopted in negotiating new collective bargaining agreements during the last few years.

Virgin America targets US Airways with launch of Philadelphia service in April

Virgin America will continue its strategy of targeting fortress hubs with service to Philadelphia commencing in Apr-2012 from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Virgin America will take approximately one-quarter market share on both routes at the main expense of Philadelphia's hub carrier, US Airways. Philadelphia is a key step in the development of Virgin America's network as it will give the carrier service to all five of the largest metropolitan areas in the US and eight of the top 10, with only Atlanta and Houston still missing from its network but likely to be added before the end of 2012.

Virgin America's first flights to Philadelphia, its 17th city, will arrive on 05-Apr-2012 with double daily service from Los Angeles on the carrier's 137-seat A320s. A third daily frequency will be added on 01-May-2012. Services from Virgin America's San Francisco hub commence 10-Apr-2012 with one daily frequency, increasing to double daily on 01-May-2012.

How consolidation has changed the US airline industry; more to come - US Airways' Doug Parker

Judging from press reports, the greatest insight during the US Airways Media Day last week was something US Airways Chair Doug Parker has been saying for years - there is probably one more big merger move left in this round of US airline consolidation. But there were two greater nuggets during the event - the fact that the world remains unconvinced that the US airline industry has really changed and those changes mean the need for more infrastructure may be completely overstated.

World Airport Rankings 2010: US airports dominate, Atlanta still biggest. Tokyo Haneda into Top 30

The world’s air traffic controllers had a slightly busier year in 2010, handling 0.8% more flights across the leading airports. But regional differences abound. Aircraft movements increased the most in Latin America-Caribbean (+6.2%), Middle East (+6.1%) and Asia Pacific (+5%) while movements continued to decline in Europe (-0.4%) and North America (-1.2%), according to Airports Council International.

Tarmac delay rules to cost the public welfare USD4 billion

Based on a new study released yesterday, consumers could rightfully say that the Department of Transportation didn’t do them any favours by imposing the three-hour tarmac rule that became effective in Apr-2010. For the first time, a four-month-long study from Airline Zone Co-Authors Darryl Jenkins and Joshua Marks, both former executives with the George Washington University Airline Institute, has quantified the impact of the new rule, finding far more passenger disruption from increased cancellations occurred in the first month of the new rule, than ever happened with protracted delays prior to the rule.