US Airlines CEO Eagerly Anticipating Inevitable Merger Party
Reuters has an extensive summary of a speech by US Airways CEO Doug "I'm OK To Drive" Parker in which he salivates over the inevitable merger party that is coming soon the airline industry.
Doug Parker, who tried and failed to merge his airline with Delta, reiterated his view that the overcrowded industry is in desperate need of consolidation.Parker thinks the softening U.S. economy and soaring jet fuel prices will push Delta into kicking off the merger party. We think he's still got a crush on someone and that someone's name is spelled D-E-L-T-A.He added, however, that Delta, despite earlier resistance to consolidation, is uniquely positioned to be the catalyst for what could be a wave of airline mergers.
"Delta will be the trigger if they want to be," said Parker, who engineered the 2005 merger of America West and US Airways. "When they decide to do something, that will be the trigger."
Parker and other airline leaders see industry consolidation as a way to cut costs and capacity and stabilize the volatile industry. A common view is that if two of the big airlines merge, others will scramble to find partners of their own.
Delta could spark mergers: US Air CEO [Reuters]
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Comments:
I hope so. With fewer airlines, it'll be easier to remember which ones, like Delta, I refuse to fly on.
For a moment there I read the headline as "Invisible Merger Party," which might be closer to the truth than initially anticipated.
@Ben Popken: Don't feel bad. I misread things so often that I have taken to assuming I have simply misread everything I find alarming.
I would like to see a law that prevents companies who just emerged from chapter 11 to acquire any company for a few years.
This is how its going to go down...
Delta + Northwest
United + Continental
JetBlue + Frontier
American + Alaska (maybe, I'm not completely sure on this one)
Southwest doesn't merge with anyone (it doesn't need to because its financially stable now... well the most stable)
Didn't Delta just file for Bankruptcy?
Delta sucks monkey nuts and US scair is even worse. All this jackass wants to do is merge, screw the employees by consolidating, then screw the traveling public by raising fares, then screw the employees again by retiring with a pretty penny after it's all said and done. The execs in the airline industry are scum.
The rippling through the economies of tourism industry and the business world would be tremendous.
That in turn would cause the airlines to lose customers, probably...and with fewer customers, the ole demand side of supply and demand drops, and to equalize that, what happens? Prices drop.
Good thinking there, Doug. You're a real genius.
So he's all excited about airline mergers, despite the fact that the US Airways/America West merger is *still* having issues.