
American’s flight operations went off without a hitch as it merged res systems with US Airways. (Image: American)
There were plenty of warnings in the media last week (including our own) that the merger of American Airlines and US Airways would face its biggest challenge yet on Saturday, October 17 when the two airlines’ reservations systems would finally be combined. But American passed that test with flying colors.
To prevent possible problems, American had cut Saturday’s flight schedules at former US Airways hubs like Charlotte, Phoenix and Philadelphia. It also had hundreds of staffers on duty to deal with any reservations difficulties that might arise. But apparently none did.
There was some concern that any IT snags lurking in the systems might show up on Monday when the carrier was back to its full schedules. But again, nothing significant happened.
That’s a tribute to the exhaustive planning that the company put into the reservations systems merger — no doubt learning from the mistakes of earlier airline mergers that resulted in massive problems with passenger bookings.
The final ceremonial US Airways flight arrived in Philadelphia as scheduled on Saturday morning. Now American can get to work erasing the few remaining traces of US Airways from its system, like repainting the livery on some aircraft and replacing the old uniforms of some staffers.
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