A similar plague seems to have befallen America's "U" airlines for the past 20 years

Spotty management

US has been perpetually mismanaged, and United has had one truly well-liked CEO in the past 20 years -- Eddie Carlson, and that was short-lived. (Greenwald was more a sinecure than anything else; he wasn't well-liked or disliked-- he was approved of, and the airline just kind of ran itself under his tenure, producing large profits as a result of low wage costs).

Some will say United became huge the last 20 years. To that I say, at what price? The foundation that was laid was never stable, with labor relations that were never harmonious; and look at the staggering problems that have all piled up over the years to the present chaos.

Some will say US had some hugely profitable and expansioary years in the mid-late 90s, but to that I say: so what? They may have a lucrative, high-yield east coast franchise, but they've never been able to cut costs even by the slightest, despite all their efforts.

It only makes sence that Wolf & Gangwal, formerly of United, work at US Airways, given the similar problems the two carriers face.

They're losing their shirts!

UA and US are both losing their primary market. United's cadre of business travellers has been greatly depleted by effects of the Summer from Hell, shrinking economy, and shrinking technology sector in specific. US Airway's high-yield pax are beeing wooed over to more low-fare competition on the east coast, despite the so-called "desirable" frills it has to offer.

UA is also losing many of its formerly loyal west-coast and transcontinental passengers, now that frequencies are being dramatically reduced at the western hubs.

They've both got large amounts of A32X left on order, with US announcing officially today it is deferring the earliest delieveries after this year to 2005. While the airbii may be cheap to acquire and operate, they are undesireable because no airline wants to be adding planes at this point in time...

Phew...Thank jeebus that's over...

US Airways lost $766 million this quarter. United is projected to lose $1 billion or more. Think about how staggering it would be if these two losers had merged!

Well, if anything, their dire situation proved to me one constant in life: BIRDS of a feather flock together.

In this case, the losers (Goodwin, Dutta, Wolf, Gangwal) tried to stick together, but fortunately they were never combined. We would have had the losingest carrier in history.