Originally Posted by skyfly
Five years ago, HP was running a ****ty airline, but HP and its employees have really put 110% effort into turning the company around. No, we are not perfect and there is always room for improvement. But HP is doing something right if we were the only few carriers to turn a profit during 1st qtr.
Skyfly, I too thank you for your comments and believe you are absolutely right! I have not been on HP in 12 months or so because my current client base isn't where you fly, but I flew HP extensively 2000-2003 and saw the
improvements firsthand.
HP's people management and employee-empowerment culture is obviously working and there lies the biggest "compatibility challenge" associated with this merger. It's not fleet commonality or route overlap. It's that US employees are at war with their management and frequently (cf. Christmas) with their customers, and you guys are the exact opposite. How do you blend those two cultures -- one of them can-do and ascendant and profitable and more or less cordial to management, the other bitter and burned-out and resigned and enraged at their management?
Cashiering the whole US management team (which I think MUST be a precondition) won't solve the whole problem. You will be bringing aboard thousands of cynical, do-the-minimum senior employees who will think you HP folks are naive patsies for even trying to do a good job.
I am extremely fearful about this merger. I am afraid you will take one good, solid medium-size carrier and one charred, screw-up husk of a mainline carrier and blend them into one big, sloppy, mediocre, who-cares carrier.
I cannot believe the plan is to fly under the US brand. No major brand in American aviation has higher negatives. And, yes, that's among the general public as well as people like us... US Airways is mass-media shorthand for labor unrest, holiday catastrophes, angry and tearful customers, wholesale cancellations, etc. It'd be like Wendy's adopting as its new slogan "Food at your fingertips." The associations are literally stomach-turning.
You can count past successful airline mergers on the fingers of one hand. Most of them result in years of adjustments and minor meltdowns, usually at the expense of the customer base, and they are usually undertaken under more favorable circumstances than those facing HP/US.
I really hope Doug Parker can articulate some good reasons for doing this. I still don't see why HP doesn't just wait for US to drop dead, then grab the east coast slots it wants and maybe rebrand east coast operations as America East. Cheaper, easier, more control for HP, bigger win for HP employees.
This had better not be Parker's ego-driven bid for major-carrier greatness. I am so skeptical about this and worried that hard-working HP employees are about to be "rewarded" by forced mixing with angry and vicious maniacs from the dark side of this industry. My best to you Skyfly.