AACUN From Mexico, joined Jan 2004, 445 posts, RR: 1 Posted (3 years 3 months 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 9053 times:
As I boarrded my flght this morning to go back home, an AA agent was taliking t me about the pending release of us FA's at AA to go into our 30 day cooling off period. We were discussing on what we think night eventually harppen, and she told me that a senior management person had gone thru 2 weeks ago and spoke of a deal involving the purchasing of an unspecified number of asian routes from UA.
Havent heard anything else on this matter, and just wanted to find out if anyone knows anything about this.
United1 From United States of America, joined Oct 2003, 5379 posts, RR: 8 Reply 1, posted (3 years 3 months 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 8928 times:
Incredibly doubtful...the majority of the cities that UA flies to in Asia have open skies with the US and its very unlikely that UA would sell anything regarding China.
Also UA does not need cash (actually on a revenue vs cash on hand basis they are projected to be in a better position then AA is by the end of the second quarter) on the other hand AA may need every penny they have if the F/As strike.
I remember 6 months ago or so someone posting a supposed E-Mail (or something to that effect) that AA was going to buy allot of UAs routes to Asia floating around AA. It turned out to be completely false...perhaps your friend was referring to that.
One never knows, if UA and CO are planning to merge UA may need to thin out some of its Asia network to get government approval for the merger. I could see UA selling off their HKG routes and fifth freedom rights.
deltal1011man From United States of America, joined Sep 2005, 8628 posts, RR: 8 Reply 3, posted (3 years 3 months 5 days 3 hours ago) and read 8584 times:
Quoting flavio340 (Reply 2): One never knows, if UA and CO are planning to merge UA may need to thin out some of its Asia network to get government approval for the merger.
huh? not sure why, It isn't like they are the only airline to Asia. The only place it could get ugly is China, and i dont see a problem here.
Quoting flavio340 (Reply 2): I could see UA selling off their HKG routes and fifth freedom rights.
Why? All AA has to do is ask.
Quoting United1 (Reply 1): Incredibly doubtful...the majority of the cities that UA flies to in Asia have open skies with the US and its very unlikely that UA would sell anything regarding China.
The only thing UA has that people would really want to pay for is the NRT slots and maybe China, the rest they could all pretty much start tomorrow.
"Oh look at the sUGAr falling out of the sky! Look at the sUGAr falling out of the sky!" LM 1922-2011 Go Dawgs! G.A.T.A.
jfk777 From United States of America, joined Aug 2006, 7410 posts, RR: 7 Reply 4, posted (3 years 3 months 5 days 3 hours ago) and read 8526 times:
Asia has opened up lots more since United purchased the Pan Am assets in 1986. China is now served in both Peking and Shanghai by AA(april 26th Peking), Delta, Continental and United. Tokyo is flown by all the above too, daily multiple times by each.
American 767 From United States of America, joined May 1999, 3334 posts, RR: 14 Reply 6, posted (3 years 3 months 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 8350 times:
Didn 't they buy the SEA-NRT route several years ago? I believe they bought it from Continental back in the early 90's. Yes I know American doesn't fly SEA-NRT anymore.
Do they have 5th freedom rights on Asian routes (for example NRT-HKG)? They must have, since they purchased Northwest which used to have 5th freedom rights within Asia.
Quoting airborne1 (Reply 5): Maybe AA will be selling Latin America soon
If that happens, American won't have a hub in MIA anymore.
Ben Soriano
"Aimer jusqu'a l'impossible, c'est possible". Tina Arena.
One never knows, if UA and CO are planning to merge UA may need to thin out some of its Asia network to get government approval for the merger. I could see UA selling off their HKG routes and fifth freedom rights.
HKG is an open market AA can start flights there anytime they can actually get their pilots to agree to fly the route.
UA and CO already have ATI for Asia if the government had an issue with the size of the combined carrier they more then likely would have raised it at that point.
jfk777 From United States of America, joined Aug 2006, 7410 posts, RR: 7 Reply 10, posted (3 years 3 months 4 days 21 hours ago) and read 6395 times:
Quoting airborne1 (Reply 5): Maybe AA will be selling Latin America soon
REALLY, LHR and Latin America are the crown jewels, "Th Family Silver".
Quoting United1 (Reply 9): HKG is an open market AA can start flights there anytime they can actually get their pilots to agree to fly the route
Its an absolute travesty AA does NOT fly to Hong Kong, narrow mindedness. Arpey needs to do what he needs to do to fly to HKG and other distant points.
flavio340 From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 180 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (3 years 3 months 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 5814 times:
Anyone else find it strange that MAH4546 has not weighted in on this. Why is he keeping so quite?
commavia From United States of America, joined Apr 2005, 10225 posts, RR: 62 Reply 13, posted (3 years 3 months 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 5663 times:
Quoting AACUN (Thread starter): an AA agent was taliking t me about the pending release of us FA's at AA to go into our 30 day cooling off period
The flight attendants getting released from mediation is not yet "pending." The NMB hasn't made a ruling yet.
Quoting AACUN (Thread starter): she told me that a senior management person had gone thru 2 weeks ago and spoke of a deal involving the purchasing of an unspecified number of asian routes from UA
Any AA (or indeed any airline) employee should know that hearing second-hand hearsay from an agent about what "senior management" is supposedly going to do is mistake #1. Rumor mill at work - nothing more, nothing less.
Quoting United1 (Reply 1): the majority of the cities that UA flies to in Asia have open skies with the US and its very unlikely that UA would sell anything regarding China.
United isn't going to be selling Asia to anybody - no need: no need for another airline to "buy" these now-freely-available authorities, and no need for United to sell them.
There is now really now market in Asia that is still "closed" besides Narita. And even with Narita it's debatable, since AA will soon have an immunized deal with JAL, United and Continental will soon have an immunized deal with ANA, and Delta has their own sizable operation there.
Beyond that - ringing the Pacific Rim, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and Korea are all completely Open Skies in legal and practical terms. In practical terms, Hong Kong is as well, and while China is still technically a restricted market, there are now so many unused and available frequencies for U.S. carriers there that it might as well be Open Skies. In Japan, which has long been among the most restrictive bilateral aviation regime in Asia for U.S. carriers (except United and Northwest), the monumentally historic watershed breakthrough in the last six months means that that market, too, is now on its way to being Open Skies in all legal and practical terms except perhaps for the availability of peak-time slots at Narita.
Thus, in short, as you already rightly said: there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for AA to buy into United's Pacific network for a portfolio of rights and authorities they could already have for free.
Quoting flavio340 (Reply 2): One never knows, if UA and CO are planning to merge UA may need to thin out some of its Asia network to get government approval for the merger.
Since United and Continental have absolutely no overlap in Asia whatsoever, I highly doubt the government would ever make them give up anything in the Pacific in order to secure regulatory approval for a merger.
If anything, a more activist Justice Department would be more concerned about market concentration within the domestic U.S. market, but even then I doubt United and Continental would have much trouble getting the requisite approvals.
Quoting airborne1 (Reply 5): This is wishful, thinking of AA people.
Not even.
I don't think there is any AA employee in their right mind right now that is "wishing" for AA to merge with or acquire part or all of any other airline. I think everyone at AA - from front line to Arpey - are far more concerned about what's going on within AA than whatever is happening out of there in the market.
Quoting airborne1 (Reply 5): Maybe AA will be selling Latin America soon
Yeah, right.
That is of course not going to happen.
But I get the point you're making - which is, of course, a completely accurate one: AA will be selling Latin America at precisely the time that United sells Asia, which is to say - when their in Chapter 7 liquidation, and not a moment sooner.
USAirALB From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 2681 posts, RR: 1 Reply 14, posted (3 years 3 months 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 4556 times:
Quoting flavio340 (Reply 12): Anyone else find it strange that MAH4546 has not weighted in on this. Why is he keeping so quite?
Yes, if this was about US, boy he would be on here in a heartbeat!
As for the purchase, I believe it is false. UA has a valuable asset in NRT and I have no idea why they would want to give that up.
AACUN From Mexico, joined Jan 2004, 445 posts, RR: 1 Reply 15, posted (3 years 3 months 4 days 16 hours ago) and read 4340 times:
Hey,
Hold on there guys. First, I didnt say I wanted us to buy any routes..... As a matter of fact I hope it isn´t true. I rather them give us the money than spend it on routes they probably will end up discontinuing anyways. And second, I never said we were released, I said we were discussing the pending release to a 30 day cooling off period. We have to really read the post before we start firing away answers.....!!!!!!!!!!!! I just wanted to know if anyone had heard anything else on this matter, and by reading everybody´s answers, I guess the answer is NO..... Thats all I needed to know. Thanks.
AJMIA From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 716 posts, RR: 16 Reply 18, posted (3 years 3 months 4 days ago) and read 1447 times:
Quoting commavia (Reply 13): Any AA (or indeed any airline) employee should know that hearing second-hand hearsay from an agent about what "senior management" is supposedly going to do is mistake #1. Rumor mill at work - nothing more, nothing less.
This is very true.
I have heard from some people in pretty high places that AA is going to be doing some expansion in Asia and Europe and I am certain that we will see something on this in the next couple of months. As for buying routes from UA... this would be a shocker for me, but stranger things have happened.
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