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American Morning
Minding Your Business: AA Pilots Peeved, Back to Bankruptcy
Aired April 18, 2003 - 07:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: More bad news for American Airlines.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning -- Heidi.
COLLINS: So -- I mean we've been going round and round with this company for a while now, and not such good news today.
SERWER: Yes, the interesting thing is that it keeps going back and forth, up and down. American Airlines, of course, trying to stave off bankruptcy. Looked like they had made some real progress because they got some concessions from their...
COLLINS: Right.
SERWER: ... three big unions, $1.8 billion in wage savings. The average employee taking a 15 percent pay cut. So you can imagine how ticked off they were yesterday when "The Wall Street Journal" reported that the top executives of this company had a secret pension fund, that they would be protected if there was a bankruptcy filing and that the playing field was not level. In other words, these guys are going to be protected if the company went into Chapter 11, the ordinary employees weren't.
I want to read what a pilot here has to say. He said, "We have sacrificed deeply to enable American Airlines to avoid an immediate bankruptcy filing. Unfortunately, it appears that management is not off to a very promising start at making the most of the reprieve."
And what's going on, Heidi, is that these union members are saying they might not sign these agreements now that they just checked off on just a day or two ago.
COLLINS: Right.
SERWER: So it's a situation we're going to be watching every day. The stock moves up, you know huge moves every trading day.
COLLINS: Right. Right, the whole industry. And Delta, 200 more furloughs, it just keeps going on and on.
SERWER: Yes, and Delta.
COLLINS: Yes.
SERWER: And they announced an over $400 million loss the other day.
Interesting, another airline note here we want to get to is that Richard Branson of Virgin Air wants to fly to Baghdad. He wants to take his airline back into Baghdad. They used to fly back there, and so did British Airways. There's Richard Branson. I mean this is a -- really he's a fascinating guy, isn't he, the guy behind this airline. British Airways used to have regular commercial service there back in the 1980s. They want to get back in there, too. You have to wonder what kind of people want to fly to Baghdad at this point.
COLLINS: Right. Right.
SERWER: I guess it's relief workers, construction.
COLLINS: Yes.
SERWER: And then at some point, though, there will be ordinary commercial traffic.
COLLINS: I would imagine it was -- it would be relief for now, though,...
SERWER: Right. Exactly.
COLLINS: Yes.
SERWER: It would take a while for that to happen.
COLLINS: Right. All right. So no more hot air ballooning for Richard Branson, huh?
SERWER: I guess that's it, yes.
COLLINS: OK.
SERWER: OK -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Andy Serwer, thank you so much.
SERWER: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Bankruptcy>
Aired April 18, 2003 - 07:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: More bad news for American Airlines.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning -- Heidi.
COLLINS: So -- I mean we've been going round and round with this company for a while now, and not such good news today.
SERWER: Yes, the interesting thing is that it keeps going back and forth, up and down. American Airlines, of course, trying to stave off bankruptcy. Looked like they had made some real progress because they got some concessions from their...
COLLINS: Right.
SERWER: ... three big unions, $1.8 billion in wage savings. The average employee taking a 15 percent pay cut. So you can imagine how ticked off they were yesterday when "The Wall Street Journal" reported that the top executives of this company had a secret pension fund, that they would be protected if there was a bankruptcy filing and that the playing field was not level. In other words, these guys are going to be protected if the company went into Chapter 11, the ordinary employees weren't.
I want to read what a pilot here has to say. He said, "We have sacrificed deeply to enable American Airlines to avoid an immediate bankruptcy filing. Unfortunately, it appears that management is not off to a very promising start at making the most of the reprieve."
And what's going on, Heidi, is that these union members are saying they might not sign these agreements now that they just checked off on just a day or two ago.
COLLINS: Right.
SERWER: So it's a situation we're going to be watching every day. The stock moves up, you know huge moves every trading day.
COLLINS: Right. Right, the whole industry. And Delta, 200 more furloughs, it just keeps going on and on.
SERWER: Yes, and Delta.
COLLINS: Yes.
SERWER: And they announced an over $400 million loss the other day.
Interesting, another airline note here we want to get to is that Richard Branson of Virgin Air wants to fly to Baghdad. He wants to take his airline back into Baghdad. They used to fly back there, and so did British Airways. There's Richard Branson. I mean this is a -- really he's a fascinating guy, isn't he, the guy behind this airline. British Airways used to have regular commercial service there back in the 1980s. They want to get back in there, too. You have to wonder what kind of people want to fly to Baghdad at this point.
COLLINS: Right. Right.
SERWER: I guess it's relief workers, construction.
COLLINS: Yes.
SERWER: And then at some point, though, there will be ordinary commercial traffic.
COLLINS: I would imagine it was -- it would be relief for now, though,...
SERWER: Right. Exactly.
COLLINS: Yes.
SERWER: It would take a while for that to happen.
COLLINS: Right. All right. So no more hot air ballooning for Richard Branson, huh?
SERWER: I guess that's it, yes.
COLLINS: OK.
SERWER: OK -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Andy Serwer, thank you so much.
SERWER: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Bankruptcy>
