eaglefly

I would think at the very least, U would acquire AE's 47 CRJ-700's. They have 3200 pilots and that would only require about 500. However, U has a very messy feed situation themselves with 9 feeders and loads of older turboprops and 50-seaters and if merged, one of Parkers front plate issues would be cleaning up and streamlining the feed situation.

Would a merged AA/U require 600 regional aircraft and 6000 feeder pilots as the current approximate numbers stand between U feeders and Eagle/AE Connection ?

I strongly doubt it, so IF this merger occures, I'd expect a 3-5 year transition period bringing that down by perhaps to about 400 aircraft and 4000 pilots. Who has a chair when the music stops would be the question. On the Eagle side, about 253 senior pilots have AA seniority and theoretically another 824 have hiring rights, but the 824 might not survive the merger. It would appear that E-190 and above would be flown by mainline and perhaps E-175 and below by the feeders, with the majority of those 400 either CRJ-700's or E-170's with about 65-seats mixed-class. Add some Q400's perhaps and a minority percentage in the 76-seat E-175/CRJ-900 class and that would seem a ball park plan.

One of the MAJOR issues for the APA was scope and small narrowbody jets and the mainline jobs they eliminate, along with both job security and advancement potential, so one would assume the APA was satisfied with what was agreed to. I've heard the "88-seat" jet number/mainline ratio, but 88-seats would seem to be the E-190 class. Have to wait to see specifics on this in the near future. AMR on the other hand, wants a blank check on RJ's and code-sharing that would effectively wipe AA down to half size and plunge a stake thru the careers of the junior half. 4000 pilots most of whom are 14 year F/O's at AA at that point have nothing to lose and so nowhere to go but up with Parker. Pointless discussing pay, pension and work rules when you're already dead.

Eagle pilots would be better off with AMR as they would morph into a split carrier operation using their two operating certificates flying 250 or more E-175's/190's feeding a half sized AA and the other half using their other certificate as a new start-up code-share ostensibly getting the A319's siphoned off to them. HUGE bucks for the executives if they could make that work with all the stock potential, but AA pilots would sooner burn the house down on their way out the door at that point. The worst part, is that it's the extra concessions by AA pilots that would likely fund much of the new orders for OTHER pilot groups to fly and executives to ca$h in on. Initially, AA stated it needed $800 million from the pilots which blossomed to 1.25 billion and now apparently is at 1.5 billion or almost DOUBLE the initial demand that supposedly competent executives determined they needed to be competitive. There's been NO negotiations as per C11/1113 requirements by AMR, so the result was obvious.

They'll probably up their pilot concession requirments again after the US Airways defection. Soon AA pilots will be getting a bill twice a month, instead of a paycheck. Personally, I can't get to the door fast enough for the next Phoenix flight.