FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines and US Airwaysseem an unlikely couple, even to the man
who will lead the combinedcompany after their merger on Monday.Doug Parker says, however,that American’s
buttoned-down, corporate culture will be the perfectcomplement to his scrappy US Airways, where "we
sometimes fire beforewe’re ready."At his spartan, temporary office in American’s FortWorth
headquarters, the longtime US Airways CEO sat down for awide-ranging interview with The Associated
Press.Parker talkedabout the merger, the government’s attempt to block the deal, loomingcompetition from
foreign airlines, and the public’s perception of airtravel. The answers have been edited for length and
clarity.____Q: Do you see a gap widening between people in first- or business-class and leisure travelers in
the back of the plane?Parker:No, I don’t necessarily. You described it as the front versus the back,and the
reality is all the seats in coach are not the same, andcustomers prefer certain ones over others and are
willing to pay moreeither through loyalty or just paying more for a ticket in order to get abetter seat in
the coach cabin.I don’t see a gap first versus coach as being a major change going forward.Q: What are your
biggest challenges in making this merger work?Parker:It’s two complex organizations that need to be melded
into one overtime. That’s the biggest challenge by far. It’s not easy, but we havepeople that have done it
before — both airlines have been through amerger in the semi-recent past. We have consultants on board
who’ve donethis with other carriers, so we’ll learn from what we’ve seen at othersas well as what we’ve seen
ourselves.Q: Were Justice Department officials right when they said the merger would cause prices to
rise?Parker:Airline prices are like prices in other businesses — they track withsupply and demand, and we’re
not reducing any of the supply. Prices maychange because demand changes, or they could change for any number
offactors like costs going up, but this merger shouldn’t have an impact onprices one way or another because
we’re not taking out any seats.Q: Will you still compete chiefly on price?Parker.We know that something
around 25 percent of our customers will go tothe lowest price irrespective of time or inconvenience. In a
low-marginbusiness like ours, you can’t give up 25 percent of your customers, sowe have to match on price.Q:
What’s the new American’s frequent-flier program going to look like?Parker:Nothing yet to announce. What we
do know is this: Customers immediatelywill be able to combine their miles and use their miles to fly on
alarger network.Q: Would you raise the number of miles needed to earn a trip, or change to a point
system?Parker:I don’t know. It’s going to be important to compete on the in-flightproduct, it’s going to be
important to compete for frequent fliers, whowill have now three real options to travel around the world.Q:
Are you worried about competition from the fast-growing Middle Eastern carriers?Parker.They’re a real
threat. This is a global business and one where we haveto compete globally. We can’t ignore any global
threat and we can’t beasked to compete on different terms.Q: Do you mean the U.S. subsidies for foreign
airlines that buy Boeing planes?Parker.That’s one thing. There are a number of areas — their (lower)
taxationversus the taxation the U.S. government puts on U.S. carriers; theaccess they’re getting (to closed
markets).Q: Can U.S. airlines ever provide the same level of service as the best Asian and Middle Eastern
airlines?Parker:Of course we can. on the ability to get people to more places, to do sosafely and
efficiently and with seats that are as good or better thananyone else’s in the world — the things customers
really care about –we can. They do have some advantages, but we can compete against thosecarriers,
certainly on like routes.Q: You said recently that US Airways has more of a bias for action than American.
What did you mean?Parker:The culture of American is probably a little more buttoned down thanthe US Airways
culture, but that has some real benefits. The US Airwaysculture is, I think, a little more open and does
have a little more biasfor action. That also means we sometimes fire before we’re ready.Q: You also said
that if the DOJ lawsuit stopped the merger, it would have been less exciting to go back to the way things
were.Parker:I was certainly thinking, ‘How do we motivate the team?’ (He hadpromised US Airways employees
pay raises, and senior executives stood toget jobs with the new company.) It was going to be a lot harder to
goback and tell them, ‘Well, now we’re back to where we were.’Q: Tell us about yourself. Do you have any
hobbies?Parker:I used to run, and my knee now is down to not much cartilage, so I dothe elliptical (exercise
machine) instead. Most of what I’m doing, ifI’m not working, is with my family. I have three kids — one in
college, asophomore in high school, and a girl who’s in eighth grade.Q: When was your last vacation, and
where did you go?Parker:We took a few days and went over to Southern California at the end ofJuly with the
family. We haven’t had a real, get-out-of-the-countryvacation in too long.Q: Finally, why do people love to
hate the airlines?Parker:I don’t know. It’s something we need to get past. It affects the peoplethat work at
the airlines. We have people out there every day who dojust amazing things to help get people from Point A
to Point B. It’s anoble job. It drives commerce, it gets people to go see their lovedones, it gets people to
be able to see the world.___Follow David Koenig at http://www.twitter.com/airlinewriterCopyright 2013 The
Associated Press. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten
orredistributed.