The two airlines couldn’t be more different in terms of their cultures, business strategies and IT philosophies. The most critical piece of this merger puzzle is the systems integration effort, which is supposed to save US Airways $100 million, the figure deemed necessary to make the new business plan work.

...US Airways (which had only 12 in-house IT employees as compared to America West’s 150) had outsourced to EDS. (Beery won’t address how many EDS employees working on the US Airways contract might be laid off, saying only that he was not currently planning to bring anyone over from EDS.)

...Among the bells and whistles US Airways has decided it can live without are, for instance, the systems and processes that allowed it to carry hazardous materials and accommodate unaccompanied minors on connecting flights.

...US Airways had been using Sabre, and America West had been using Shares (both now supported by EDS). But because many of America West’s systems—which will become the new US Airways systems—are Shares-based, Beery decided to keep Shares rather than use the larger airline’s Sabre system.

..."If this new airline just focuses on costs and provides a rotten customer experience and ends up with demoralized employees, they will end up in the dead airline heap on eBay," Harteveldt says. "But if US Airways is able to successfully implement the low-cost structure that America West had and continues to build out relevant customer-valued services, they stand a chance of making US Airways a sought-after brand. But there are no guarantees in the airline business. You’re here today and no one knows about tomorrow."

....Replacing the reservations system alone will take 12 to 15 months, Beery estimates. And that real-time system’s replacement—the second hump of Beery’s camel—may be the most prone to problems.