EL AL Matmid - More competition TLV->USA or Less?

Slightly off-topic for the El Al forum but still somewhat relevant:
With the announcement of a possible merger of USAir and American Airlines, what would that mean for flights between TLV and USA? USAir flies from PHL right now, and American has no flights to Israel but it does have a partnership with El Al. If USAir took over American would that partnership disappear? Would USAir start a flight from NYC to TLV ?

When American took over TWA some ten or 11 years ago, one of the first things they did was cancel the JFK->TLV flight even though it was quite profitable. So what would be the likely outcome of a USAir merger with American for TLV flights?

Slightly off-topic for the El Al forum but still somewhat relevant:
With the announcement of a possible merger of USAir and American Airlines, what would that mean for flights between TLV and USA? USAir flies from PHL right now, and American has no flights to Israel but it does have a partnership with El Al. If USAir took over American would that partnership disappear? Would USAir start a flight from NYC to TLV ?

When American took over TWA some ten or 11 years ago, one of the first things they did was cancel the JFK->TLV flight even though it was quite profitable. So what would be the likely outcome of a USAir merger with American for TLV flights?

My guess - no change at the beginning. Once USAir will digest AA, I would expect to see some direct flights JFK-TLV or even ORD-TLV.

As for LY's partnership, I guess one of the requirements that would be imposed on US by regulators would be to honour prior commitments for code sharing by non-alliance members for a while. After that, LY is going to get really screwed, and would need to team up with B6 as a domestic airline.

The true question is what would happen to OW, which would probably be willing to accept any US-based airline to cover up for the lose...

My guess - no change at the beginning. Once USAir will digest AA, I would expect to see some direct flights JFK-TLV or even ORD-TLV.

As for LY's partnership, I guess one of the requirements that would be imposed on US by regulators would be to honour prior commitments for code sharing by non-alliance members for a while. After that, LY is going to get really screwed, and would need to team up with B6 as a domestic airline.

The true question is what would happen to OW, which would probably be willing to accept any US-based airline to cover up for the lose...

B6 though will only accommodate interlining pax. If LY were to lose AA, then all group traffic throughout the US would be lost and so would many of the corporate agreements.

B6 though will only accommodate interlining pax. If LY were to lose AA, then all group traffic throughout the US would be lost and so would many of the corporate agreements.

True.

Maybe it's time LY partner up with FI (Iceland air). A good connecting point at RVK, would allow people one-stop travel on LY/FI to/from SEA, DEN, MSP, IAD, BOS, and MCO (with FI operating these routes, less need for security hassle), and can even use RVK as a fuelling stop, maybe extending FI network (e.g., to LAX/SFO, or even new places taking account that the plane's costs would be shared with FI), and helping FI pax to go to the east/south africa (albeit through some weird connection, the fact that there are not that many FI pax, but maybe with a nice stopover in Jerusalem/Tel Aviv...)