Friday, May 16, 2008

The Daily News ...

---United Airlines Still Can't Get No Respect … This just in from the US Airline Pilots Association (USAPA), representing 5,000 pilots at US Airways:


US Airways pilots will not support any moves towards a follow-on merger until management finishes the job of our last merger. With $6.8 billion dollars invested and an ATSB restricted contract, the pilots of US Airways are the single largest investor in US Airways. Regarding United Airlines, their financial health is a major concern to USAPA. With mounting losses, and a dismal balance sheet, UAL may not be the best dance partner for US Airways. If synergies mean cutting capacity at US Airways while we experience record load factors concurrent with positive industry yields, we simply aren’t interested.”

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---Not all airlines are basket cases. In fact, the big foreign carriers (itching, incidentally, to buy into the U.S. market big time) are doing just fine. Lookit British Airways fiscal year results, released today. Profit is up 45 percent, and the profit margin exceeds 10 percent. Costs are down 0.7 percent despite oil prices. Premium traffic is up 4.4 percent.

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---Oh. My. God. ... End Times are definitely imminent. Peggy Noonan, by far the most readable of the Irish-lady columnists, is starting to make sense.

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