With the merger now happening, and with AA not being able to fly to TLV by court order, what do you think will happen with AA/US service to TLV?
According to this article:
http://www.mako.co.il/news-money/eco...bacbc31004.htm AA owes $20-30 million to former TW employees. However it also says that TLV is one of US's most profitable markets.
I think that until AA and US will receive a single operating certificates they will continue flying to Israel, under US certificate. However, when the first AA certificated plane lands in TLV, the authorities will be able to confiscate it until the debt will be payed.
So, what do you think will happen? Will AA abandon the Israeli market once again, firing all employees in the US office, any maybe while firing them not compiling with the Israeli laws, which will require them to pay compensations to the current US employees, only increasing their debts in Israel?
Or will AA pay the debt, allowing PHL-TLV to continue, and probably starting JFK/ORD/MIA-TLV service?
I hope that they will pay the debt, and initiate the new routes, however I'm not optimistic. I do believe that if AA will cancel TLV service, LY will probably add another AA hub as a destination, expanding the AA/LY codeshare, or, if they won't be able to do it fast enough, I believe we will see UA flying from IAD/ORD or DL adding extra JFK flights. What do you think?