Originally Posted by
sfozrhfco
It is not sustainable now. The longer it goes on the more pilots get poached by other airlines. If AS is not going to wrap this up quickly, they should start to cut their summer schedule now. Giving customers the message that they will be randomly cancelling flights at the last minute during the summer when there won’t be any alternatives aside from staying home is not going to sit well. They are actively destroying the good will they built up over many years.
This is where AS is ruthless. They've been down this road so many times, that while it appears that the pilots have some leverage, AS is perfectly willing to play this out knowing that they've been experts over the years in recovering from service issues. While in the short term they'll loose customers, their long game is to keep the lack of Scope and have carte blanche in ordering and placing E's with regionals. Anyone who has been through SFO lately can see at any given time during the day, the number of E's parked at the gates exceed mainline X 2. AS will eventually get a contract, but not until they have played all their cards and have gotten a lot of what they want in a CBA. Their pilot group has many 7 year CA, those pilots aren't going anywhere to start over. What they are at risk of loosing are junior FO's, and they have lost some, but the way AS plays the labor game, those are loses that they might be willing to take. As far as a recovery? Most travelers have a short memory. AS knows now that they're a member of OW and the partnership with AA they are more attractive to many flyers. I believe AS believes that they can win most of us back as well as tap into new flyers. With merger mania picking back up, there are going to be some carriers that may have to swallow a ton of debt. Debt like they've never had to service in their history. Not to mention dealing with DOJ and integrating operations and staff. Those are items that I know first hand hurt your focus while working through them. AS may believe that buys them time. As much as I dislike how AS has always handled negotiations with their work groups, based on their history with labor, I see them dragging this out for a bit. I hope I'm wrong.