By Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter
Dallas, TX – Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter: To passengers, there may hardly be a difference between American Airlines and American Eagle, except this: one flies large jets, the other turbo-props and regional jets that usually only carry 35 to 50 people. But, American and Eagle are different companies. Although AMR is the corporate parent of both, they have separate management teams, unions and contracts that impose restrictions on each other in order to protect jobs.
Herb Mark, Chair, Eagle Pilots Master Executive Council: There is a limit to the amount of regional jets of a certain seat size we can fly. There's a limitation of flying into and from various hubs that American flies out of.
Zeeble: Herb Mark chairs the Master Executive Council of the Eagle Pilots union. He says his union and American's pilots have worried that without restrictions, managers could grow one airline and shrink the other, costing the loser some pilots. On occasion, the twp unions have battled each other over jobs. But no more.
Mark: Over the past six months, dialogue between the unions has seen rapid improvement and that's continued.
Zeeble: So much improvement, he says, that Eagle pilots now want to come under the American Airlines umbrella, getting rid of the separate Eagle company. The proposal first came from American Airlines' pilots who call the benefits to the company and the pilots a win-win situation. American Airlines Captain Sam Mayer is a New York-based spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association.
Captain Sam Mayer, Allied Pilots Association: It gives them total flexibility within the network. All artificial constraints on number and size of planes, where they're allowed to use certain airplanes, would go away as we become one airline and all pilots would be American Airlines pilots.
Zeeble: The move would free up American to freely compete in all markets, with small or large planes, depending on the market demand, not some negotiated restriction. Mayer says the pilot payoff is obvious.
Mayer: For an American Eagle pilot who's just getting hired, to know some day they'll retire as a 777 captain flying international routes with American Airlines, I think that is a (laughs) significant upgrade in their career expectations.
Zeeble: Both pilots complain however that management has been uninterested in discussing the idea, and they wonder why.
Mayer: That's the $64 million question.
Zeeble: American says contract talks are now underway with their pilots and a federal mediator, so spokesperson Steve Tankel says the company can't say much.
Steve Tankel, spokesperson, American Airlines: It's such an important issue and it's something we're talking about at the negotiating table. I can't talk about it here. The last thing you want to do is negotiate a contract through the press...
Zeeble: But long-time airline consultant Michael Boyd thinks both airlines under one manager will go nowhere because he believes the parent AMR doesn't want to change American Eagle's status.
Michael Boyd, airline consultant: Over the long term, in a decade, those planes will have less value so maybe American Airlines is saying if we keep it separate we can do what Continental did; spin it off, make some money and someone else will take the problem.
Zeeble: Boyd also suggests the airline likes to play American's pilots against Eagle's in contract talks. But since the carrier's CEO Don Carty's been saying American must streamline operations, Boyd likes the pilot's proposal.
Boyd: Can American Airlines be more efficient having one set of management and one set of pilots? My answer would be yes, they would be.
Zeeble: This proposal for American Airlines to run both American and Eagle is just one idea currently on the negotiating table. At the same time, American faces what may be its worst financial crisis ever. It's said it must reduce expenses and labor costs among the company's highest. For KERA 90.1, I'm Bill Zeeble.
To contact Bill Zeeble, please send emails to bzeeble@kera.org.