Friday, May 20, 2005

Zero plus zero equals....

Yesterday US Airways and America West Airlines announced their intent to merge, forming the nation's fifth largest passenger airline. How well will these two firms integrate?

According to the US Department of Transportation these two airlines ranked 17th and 18th out of 19 airlines in complaints per 100,000 passengers for the first three months of this year. "We've corrected problems before; we can correct them again," according to America West spokesman Carlo Bertolini said. According to US Airways spokeswoman Amy Kudwa, "We've had a renewed focus on on-time performance."

US Airways has filed for bankruptcy twice in the last three years, and both companies continue to struggle financially, with junk bond debt ratings. Moody's Investors Service said that even after a merger, the two companies would continue to face a difficult operating environment.

It sounds like these two companies are on the same page - unfortunately for them it's not the right one!

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