American Airlines

You might go to the airport someday soon and get the impression that American Airlines basically owns the joint. If American Airlines buys USAir Group, more than 70 percent of Philadelphia International Airport's domestic flights would be operated by American. And for Philadelphia travelers, that could mean higher fares and, maybe, fewer flights to choose from, some airline experts say. Right now, it's far from certain that American will buy USAir. But that possibility is reportedly being discussed by American Airlines and British Airways, which appear to be on the verge of a major trans-Atlantic alliance.

AIRPORT SURCHARGE. American Airlines has begun imposing ticket surcharges of $1 to $4 on each departing passenger at five U.S. airports, in effect passing on to customers charges that the airports have assessed the airline. The airports are New York's La Guardia, Newark International and those in New Orleans and in Fort Myers and West Palm Beach, Fla. The surcharges reflect disagreements over fees between the airline and the airports. At La Guardia, for instance, the airline objects to some airport- improvement costs with which it has been saddled.

American Airlines said yesterday that it would lay off an unspecified number of workers because what it termed an illegal sickout by pilots has forced the carrier to cut back its flight schedule. The nation's largest airline said it would reduce the number of flights by 4 percent in mid-January because of what it said was an organized effort by pilots to slow operations to protest a lack of progress in contract talks. The carrier normally operates about 2,300 daily flights worldwide.

FORT WORTH, Texas - American Airlines canceled about 200 flights today so its crews can inspect some wire bundles aboard its MD-80 aircraft. The canceled flights represent less than 10 percent of the nation's biggest airline's scheduled service for the day. American canceled most of its flights scheduled for today between Philadelphia International Airport and its hub at Chicago O'Hare Airport, and other flights to its Dallas/Fort Worth and...

In a bid to gear up for the next decade, American Airlines said yesterday that it had placed orders for 75 twin-jet aircraft from Dutch manufacturer Fokker and 35 jetliners from Boeing Co. "Taken together, these transactions complete the task of positioning American for the 1990s," chairman Robert Crandall said at a news conference. The airline, owned by AMR Corp. in Fort Worth, Texas, also took options to purchase another 75 aircraft from Fokker. The order is the largest in Fokker's history, it said.

American Airlines' pilots overwhelmingly rejected a tentative agreement with the bankrupt airline Wednesday, putting their fate before a federal bankruptcy judge and potentially delaying US Airways' quest to merge and create the world's biggest airline. The Allied Pilots Association, representing 8,000 pilots, voted 4,600 against and 2,935 in favor of the tentative contract. An approval would have sped American's plan to restructure and emerge from Chapter 11 reorganization as a stand-alone company, or part of a merger, one airline analyst said.

American Airlines flight attendants have approved cost reductions, including changes to work hours and pensions, sought by the bankrupt carrier, the union said Sunday. Despite the "yes" vote, union leaders said they continue to support a merger with US Airways Group Inc. and have "zero confidence" in American's current management. "We firmly believe that the only way for American Airlines to grow and compete and perhaps even to survive is through a merger" that puts US Airways chief executive Doug Parker and his team in charge, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants said on its website.

American Airlines said Thursday it will reduce its flight schedule by 1 percent through the first half of November because of continuing flight delays and cancellations. While "encouraged" by improvements in some performance metrics, the Fort Worth, Tex.-based carrier said "overall, we are not yet back to the levels our customers deserve and expect. " The change will not affect holiday travel, American said in a memo to employees. American earlier reduced its flying by 1 percent to 2 percent through October.

A significant group of financial creditors of bankrupt American Airlines said it would support a stand-alone carrier after bankruptcy only if there were to be a new board of directors - and key stakeholders, including labor, were part of the selection. The group laid out its position in a letter to American pilots' union president Keith Wilson made public to 8,000 members of the Allied Pilots Association (APA) on Wednesday. The 12 creditors, represented by the law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCoy, said that as "material" stakeholders "we intend to be one of the primary negotiators of any plan of reorganization.

Clandestine meetings, covert operations, secret telephone calls. It could be a Hollywood script, but it is the real-life story of how US Airways Group snagged a merger deal with bankrupt American Airlines. There was even a code name used by US Airways and its advisers when communicating internally about their strategy - "Tetris," named for a video game using squares to fill in spaces in a grid. Tetris stood for the gaps in US Airways' and American's route networks, the Midwest and East Coast, respectively.

Community activists and an interfaith group want Philadelphia City Council to amend a lease agreement between the city and US Airways Group to boost the salary of 1,500 low-wage airport workers and require future hiring for ground-service jobs to come from neighborhoods around Philadelphia International Airport. Several dozen clergy and members of Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower, and Rebuild (POWER) held a prayer vigil Thursday outside Mayor Nutter's office demanding that the interests of Philadelphia's dominant airline not be put above the needs of skycaps, aircraft cabin cleaners, and wheelchair attendants, who earn poverty wages from subcontractors with low-bid airline contracts.

In the Region   Manufacturing down in area   Manufacturing in the Philadelphia region contracted this month after improving slightly in April, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported. The Philly Fed survey reflected similar results announced a day earlier by the Federal Reserve in the New York City region. In the Philadelphia region, the bank's survey indicators were uniformly negative this month, but factory managers' responses, reported confidentially to the bank, suggest firms expect overall growth over the next six months, the bank said.

US Airways Group and American Airlines say their pending merger should win regulatory approval because their networks are complementary and out of more than 900 domestic nonstop routes, only 12 have overlapping nonstop flights. But a study released Tuesday by the Consumer Travel Alliance says that the merger would eliminate connecting-flight competition between the airlines on 761 common connecting routes, and that the new American would be able to raise ticket prices on those flights.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - US Airways Group reiterated Wednesday the importance of Philadelphia as a hub airport in the coming merger with American Airlines. Speaking at its 13th annual media day, where executives mingled with reporters to talk about the merger and put a best foot forward on what will be the world's biggest airline, US Airways president Scott Kirby said New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, from which American does a lot of international flying, "is a great point-to-point market" for local fliers traveling between New York and destinations such as London's Heathrow Airport.

L AUREN BOGGI Goldenberg, 35, of Center City, is founder and CEO of Lithe Method, a "cardio-cheer-sculpting" fitness regimen that has evolved into a full-fledged Lithestyle brand with food, "studio-to-street" activewear and a blog, fithiphealthy.com. Q: How did you come up with the idea for Lithe Method? A: I was a cheerleader and hurt my shoulder and eventually started teaching Pilates but got bored. I missed my cheerleader routine and started doing my own thing. Q: What's behind the name?

DALLAS - A federal bankruptcy judge has at least temporarily blocked a proposed $20 million severance payment for the chief executive officer of American Airlines as part of the company's merger with US Airways. The judge ruled that the proposed payment to Tom Horton exceeded limits that Congress set for bankruptcy cases in 2005. A spokesman for American said Friday that the airlines would push ahead with their merger and deal with Horton's compensation later. The U.S. Trustee's Office, part of the Department of Justice, objected to Horton's compensation.

Fare impact from airline mergers It's laughable to hear US Airways chief Doug Parker say that Philadelphia will benefit from the merger with American Airlines ("In Phila., extolling airlines' merger," March 27). I've been flying twice a year for business to Portland, Maine, for more than 20 years. Tickets for a 52-minute nonstop flight once cost in the $300 range at a time when there was competition on that route. But now it's in the $800 to $1,000 range. The reason? Southwest Airlines in the last year or so decided it was only flying in a southwest direction from Philadelphia.