Like many airline employees in a post-consolidation world, the Colleyville resident has worked for various carriers around the country. The US Airways name was first used officially on Feb. DeBruhl, who writes a blog called Carolina Travel Girl, flies up to , miles a year to places like Italy and China. I loved the fact that it was small and personable. It had a good feel to it. Although the US Airways brand is gone, it will take a little longer for it to disappear completely. US Airways Group emerges from bankruptcy.
Saturday: Oct. Become a business insider. Get the latest headlines delivered to your inbox every weekday. And its on-time performance — one of the most important measures for travelers — lagged its two biggest competitors, Delta and United, dipping into the low 70 percent range over the busy summer season.
Industry-watchers, labor leaders and others worry that the company's momentum may be slowing. Executives have their eye on and beyond, with opportunities for sizable growth at American's most profitable hubs, including DFW International Airport, and a focus on running the most efficient operation since the merger.
With much of the groundwork now laid, American will have to prove that what it's built over the last five years can be greater than the sum of its parts. At American's Fort Worth headquarters, dozens of banners decorate the six-story atrium, each detailing a milestone in merging the two airlines, from creating a combined reservation system and frequent-flier program to repainting its fleet.
Much of that initial work involved countless hours of technical work to align legacy systems from American and US Airways. By all accounts, American weathered the challenge better than most, if not all, of the airlines who had merged before it, avoiding the public system meltdowns that scrambled operations at the likes of United. Just as important for the company was working to rebuild a culture that had been strained by years of uncertainty, from the post Sept.
That they know what their role is and have the tools to do it. American's unions were key in catalyzing the merger by throwing their support behind the deal early in the process. Their employees have since seen significant pay increases, including unprecedented mid-contract raises for pilots and flight attendants.
But challenges remain as the airline works to build a responsive culture built on listening to and acting on employee feedback. A recent internal survey revealed that nearly half of the 41, employees who responded didn't feel like leaders at American make the right decisions to care for front-line workers or that leaders listen and seek to understand their experiences.
American executives noted that the survey is only in its second year after at least a decade of not asking these types of companywide questions. Gathering this feedback is a necessary step toward continued improvement, they say. That is clearly recognized and embraced by our employees," Allied Pilots Association spokesman Dennis Tajer said of the company's culture. Union leaders have also raised concerns about scheduling problems they say lead to unexpected disruptions and last-minute changes that contribute to fatigue and harm the work-life balance of their members.
It grew rapidly with several acquisitions but remained a Northeast focused operator. Deregulation in the US in allowed the airline to expand to other locations, and the growing airline changed its name to USAir. It became the largest operator of the DC-9 and the launch customer for the Boeing , which it worked with Boeing to design.
USAir continued the acquisition started by Allegheny Airlines, taking over several other airlines during the s. Flights to Europe began in the s. The early s brought difficulties for the airline, known as US Airways, since , as it had done for American Airlines. By , neither airline was in a great position. American Airlines had filed for bankruptcy in American Airlines considered several possible airline mergers as part of its restructuring plans.
It signed a nondisclosure agreement with US Airways in August as they began discussions of a potential merger. Merging the operations of the two airlines took a lot longer than this.
And there were, of course, many more shifts in personnel, locations, routes, and systems to sort out. It was not until October that the FAA awarded a single operating certificate for the new airline. And the US Airways brand was not discontinued until October That's the biggest challenge by far.
It's not easy, but we have people that have done it before — both airlines have been through a merger in the semi-recent past. We have consultants on board who've done this with other carriers, so we'll learn from what we've seen at others as well as what we've seen ourselves.
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