Feb. 11--Hopes are that a possible merger of American Airlines parent AMR Corp. and US Airways will not cause hardship with fares, service and jobs at Dayton International Airport, those familiar with the issue say.
The Associated Press, Reuters and other news organizations, citing unnamed sources, reported Monday that the boards of AMR and US Airways were in deep talks about the deal. It could still fall apart, but a merger could be announced as soon as Wednesday, the sources said.
The airlines mostly serve different destinations from Dayton International, so it's expected that a merger won't hurt service and flight availability. But, as has been seen in similar mergers, there could be small increases in fares or reduced flights to overlapping destinations.
Terry Slaybaugh, Dayton's director of aviation, said his top concern is what would happen to the 450 employees at PSA Airlines, a regional airline wholly owned by US Airways that's headquartered at the airport. The company, which flies under US Airways Express, is expanding a training facility there, he added.
"Optimistically, I would hope any charges they make would be positive," Slaybaugh said. "Generally, we have a lot of service from both carriers, and we hope it will have no negative impact on the Dayton market."
US Airways has flights from Dayton to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Charlotte and Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. American offers flights to Dallas-Ft. Worth and Chicago.
Jay Brock, spokesman for Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, said didn't anticipate any service cuts from the merger. "But nobody knows until they do it," he added.
Seth Kaplan of weekly industry trade publication Airline Weekly predicted a merger won't pose any immediate threat to the Dayton market, certainly not on the scale of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport's loss in service following the merger of Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines.
"If you look at service patterns out of Dayton and the two airlines, they don't compete head-to-head on many routes," Kaplan said, although flights from connecting airports might be affected in some way. Overall, he said, service and routes should hold steady. A small rise in fare costs, though, is typical following mergers, he added.
If the two combine, it would create the world's biggest airline as measured by passenger traffic, although United Continental Holdings Inc. would still be slightly bigger if regional operations such as United Express and American Eagle are counted, AP said.
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