Employees Respond That He Should Know

For a three-month period in late-2006 and early 2007, the name Doug Parker was synonymous with "airline merger" -- as the CEO of US Airways Group pursued a hostile takeover bid of Delta Air Lines. That bid failed in January 2007.

Somewhat ironically, Parker had harsh words recently for how Delta and Northwest Airlines appear to be handling a potential merger of their own... saying both airlines are putting too much pressure on their pilots to hash out an agreement on seniority.

"I don't think it's fair to put the pilots in that position," Parker told Reuters. "In some sense, I feel for the pilots at Delta and Northwest."

As ANN reported, talks between the two carriers have reportedly broken down, due to continuing concerns over how a merged airline would integrate Delta and Northwest pilots' seniority lists. Each airline's chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association has differing ideas on how best to do that... and, insure their respective interests come out ahead.

Executives at the two airlines had hoped for at least a tentative agreement on the issue before formally announcing a merger, in hopes of avoiding the kind of post-merger turmoil that now -- ironically, again -- plagues the very airline Parker oversees.

Pilots from the former US Air and America West still haven't agreed on a joint contract, nearly three years after that merger was first announced. On Thursday, a number of labor groups from throughout US Airways picketed outside the airline's Phoenix, AZ headquarters, saying the carrier has failed to address their issues, as well.

US Air pilots recently won approval from the National Mediation Board to hold a vote to replace their ALPA chapter with the newly-created US Airlines Pilots Association, in hopes the new union would strike a better deal for their side than ALPA managed with a seniority formula presented by a federal arbitrator in June 2007.

Parker touched on that issue only lightly in the Reuters interview. "Getting pilots to agree on seniority is a very difficult task," he said. "You have to recognize that going in."

Pilot Tania Bziukiewicz, spokeswoman for the America West chapter of ALPA, says the US Airways CEO appears blessed with superb hindsight. "Doug Parker has failed to complete this merger," she said. "It's still chaos."

Parker had other thoughts, as well, on the current state of the domestic airline industry as it grapples with record fuel prices and a slumping economy.

"Our industry is in a mess, if you haven't noticed," Parker said succinctly. "We're about to head into what looks like another downturn."

FMI: www.usairways.com