How about American being dominated by British Airways and Qantas?

It’s no secret that American’s in a bad way – they’re going to be knocked down from King of the Hill to #3 in short order. They’re out of cash. Their fleet is old. Their route structure needs amping up. They don’t service Oceania anymore. They’re very weak across the Pacific. They’re weak to Europe in comparison to Delta or United’s structure.

What to do? Especially when Lufty snaps up Doug Parker’s little project?

Let someone else drive.

Let’s jump from airplane surprise to airline shocker –

USAirways will sell itself to Lufthansa.

This makes perfect sense. USAirways cannot continue to thrive where they are virtually shut out by Delta, United and American. They don’t have the hub and route structure necessary, they have almost no funding for expansion or new equipment and .. if they have to file again, this third time won’t be the charm.

Virgin America has already demonstrated exactly how to handle the foreign ownership restrictions that would limit any such transaction. No wheels to re-invent.

Lufthansa has already acquired and dramatically improved several airlines in Europe – Swiss, Austrian, SNBrussels, and seems to have a lock on SAS. But, they have nothing but O&D in the biggest airline passenger treasure chest of all – North America.

Lufthansa has the ability to inject the cash, provide the extraordinary management, the IT capacity, the route planning, and to provide appropriate aircraft to make USAirways a true competitor to the other Legacy majors in North America. With that, Lufty will be able to compete directly with its Star Alliance partners in North America, and with Delta and American.

Doug Parker? Lufthansa has your Golden Ticket.