As you all probably have heard, America West announced today that it was
dropping its bid to acquire ATA. In a news release, America West CEO
Doug Parker praised the ATA employees for their extreme cooperation in
working to craft a merger, and expressed hope that we would find some
other airline that deserved our talents. He said AWA was forced to drop
out because it could not come to terms with some of ATA's aircraft
lessors, who of course are the key to restructuring ATA as a viable
entity.
I have never been as angry, as disappointed, or as exhausted as I am
today. We were literally hours away from accomplishing a miracle when
forces completely outside our control stepped in and destroyed weeks of
careful, painstaking work. For the last two weeks, the MEC and ALPA
staff have been working around the clock with America West senior
management and the AWA MEC to craft a deal that would have kept all of
us working. We would have had to work under the terms of the America
West contract, but we would all have stayed employed. This was the final
outcome of the offer that AWA's COO, Jeff McClelland, had made to me and
the other MEC officers when we met with him in Phoenix almost a month
ago.
As late as last night, we had completed drafting the language for a
series of LOAs we were ready to take to you for ratification. One LOA
dealt with America West management and our accepting the terms of the
AWA contract; another was with the AWA MEC and contained the language
that would have integrated the two pilot groups, including longevity
protection for all ATA crew members. We would not have been tacked on
the bottom of America's West's list - this would have been a true
integration. We were on the verge of doing something that had never been
done before within ALPA, a relatively painless merger of two pilot
groups that preserved the rights and protections of each while making
the whole stronger. The ATA-AWA combination would have transformed the
landscape of low-cost carriers and reverberated throughout the industry."
We found out early today that one of AWA's major partners had withdrawn
the debtor-in-possession, or DIP, financing that America West needed to
make the deal work. Without that infusion of cash, Doug Parker decided
the deal was too risky and was forced to drop out of the ATA race. While
we can't publicly confirm who knocked the legs out from under America
West, it doesn't take a Harvard business degree to realize who benefits
most from keeping the low-cost landscape just as it now.
Unless some previously unforeseen White Knight emerges from tomorrow's
bankruptcy auction, it now appears that some furloughs at ATA are
inevitable. The numbers and the timeline are dependent on who wins the
auction next week. Our focus now will be on using our clout within the
unsecured creditors' committee to encourage the bankruptcy judge to
accept an offer that saves the most jobs possible. We had hoped to save
all of them through the AWA merger, but it didn't happen. Now we dust
ourselves off and move forward.
We are also going to have to continue to negotiate with the Company on
further concessions. This is the last thing you, I or any of us want to
do, but once again, if we want to keep as many of us flying as possible,
we have to negotiate. The alternative is liquidation and the loss of all
ATA jobs.
As angry as I am today, I would be remiss if I did not thank the people
who worked so hard for so many weeks to try and hammer the America West
deal together. It truly was a team effort between the MEC, our excellent
committee volunteers, our ALPA staff, and our outside experts. Every
single one of these people worked their asses off and continue to do so.
As I have said from the get-go, the bankruptcy process is fluid and
anything can happen at any time. That's why I'm so glad that we have
this team together - if there is a way to make another miracle happen,
these are the guys who will get us there.
Finally, I want to thank all of you as well for your patience and your
trust of us these past few weeks. There were many things going on that
we couldn't talk about. Today was supposed to be the day that we could
tell all, but the outcome wasn't what we wanted. That just means we have
to work that much harder from now on. We will continue to earn your
trust every day and come out with the best plan possible for as many of
us as possible. I will give you more information as soon as I can get it
- until then, go ahead and cry in your beer tonight, but be ready to go
out and kick butt again tomorrow."
