Originally Posted by
iahphx
If you were STILL working for US, you'd probably feel differently.
I am, in fact, still working at USAirways. If they fail now I will be far worse off than if they had failed in 2001.
Look, it would have been insane -- and horrible public policy -- to force a major American airline to liquidate solely because of the 9/11 attack.
Now you are being disingenuous, at best. 9/11 was not the only reason any of the ATSB recipients were on the ropes. They were all at the precipice. No airline was being "forced" into liquidation, they had arrived at that juncture on their own.
I mean, honestly, isn't that just evil?
No. Keeping the stragglers alive only serves to weaken the rest of the field.
The Air Transportation Stabilization Board was a good idea. They were pretty tough (maybe too tough) in doling out gov't money.
Incorrect, they were not tough enough. They should have only provided funds to those carriers who could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that 9/11 was the primary cause of their financial distress.
It would have been a far better idea to reduce the onerous tax burden that all airlines are saddled with and let the weakest players die rather than distorting the market with taxpayer money.
Indeed, the ATSB allowed SMART airline managers to come in and save troubled airlines. Let's see now, who went Chap. 11 after 9/11? Why, it was most of the BIG airlines like DL, UA and NW (I presume your "stronger" ones?), while a supposedly weak carrier (like HP) avoided bankruptcy and made money for their shareholders, creditors and the gov't!! And then they took their smarts and saved US, which nobody thought had a snowball's chance in hell to survive. And you call that a MISTAKE? I mean, seriously, where are you coming from?
DL, UA and NW did go through chapter 11 and emerged on the other side as viable businesses sans a public handout. Trumpeting the fact that USAir did not have to go through chapter 11 (for a third time) after they were beneficiaries of a public bail-out does not help your case.
The people who want to attack this airline should understand a bit of its history. It's truly a story of survival against all odds.
When that survival is courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer it is not nearly as inspirational as you seem to believe.
You must be in awe of the heros at AIG and Goldman Sachs. Truly epic tales of survival against all odds.
By your metrics the real SMART MANAGERS should be the executives at American. Not only have they survived without a trip through bankruptcy court they have done so while competing with carriers that went through both chapter 11 transformations
and received bail-outs.
Ask them how they feel about having to compete with companies kept alive by tax dollars.
And the final chapters have not yet been written.
Is USAirways your religion or something?