Good Bloomberg story here describing the challenges American Airlines faces going forward. In a nutshell, its labor costs are too high, and its unions — all of them — are quite resistant to doing anything about it. As a result, AA is the only one of the six largest airlines that’s expected to lose money this year.
The Charlotte connection? Simple: The US Airways has said repeatedly that they eventually see themselves in a merger with (as in being absorbed by) either Delta (which recently also merged with Northwest), United (which is merging with Continental), or American. As a practical matter, American is by far the most likely of those combinations. But only if and when American gets its house in order.
