Airline mergers mean more pain for passengers

As CNN discovered, airline mergers don't typically work wonders for passenger satisfaction. The last time US Airways attempted such a big shift, when it combined reservation systems with America West in March 2007 after their merger, the Department of Transportation reported that passenger complaints about the airline nearly doubled.

United (UAL) took similar heat after its merger with Continental last March, when complaints about its service shot up 60%.

Delta (DAL) didn't fare much better after its merger with Northwest Airlines in 2009 and 2010, as complaints rose and on-time arrivals fell. In the case of recently bankrupted American and directionless US Airways, it may get a lot worse before it gets better.

American filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2011, and a bankruptcy court allowed it to throw out its pilots' existing labor deal back in early September. The airline saw its on-time arrival rate crater at 59% in September amid pilots' maintenance complaints and sickouts.

A labor dispute was responsible for a portion of those problems, but so were incidents in late September and early October in which passenger seats came loose on three flights and forced the airline to ground 47 planes for inspection. American's arrival rate has since recovered, but still lingers below 80%, according to FlightStats.com. Only JetBlue (JBLU) and Air Canada  (AIDIF) passengers were late more often last month, with respective on-time arrival rates of 78.9% and 58.6%.

US Airways' on-time arrivals were far better at 83.3% -- trailing the 84.9% at Southwest (LUV), the 87.1% at Alaska (ALK) and Delta's 87.2% -- but the airline is already giving off the vibe that a merger with American would be awkward at best.

U.S. Airways made AMR an offer in November that put U.S. Airways CEO Doug Parker at the head of the new company, but would give AMR creditors 70% of its equity. AMR management not only seemed shaky about handing the controls to Parker, but also wanted a bigger cut than the 70% on the table.

That was after American chairman Tom Horton outright insulted U.S. Airways earlier last year by calling out their previous merger failures to the Dallas Morning News and stating publicly, "I’m not sure what’s in the water out there in Phoenix. Maybe it’s the cactus."

Should this merger happen in spite of all the above, passengers won't necessarily be doomed. Airfares have increased less than 2% a year since 2004 despite the spate of mergers, according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoope​rs. That's less than the increase for fuel and labor during the same span, but even that's not such a great deal if passengers are paying the same for less.

More on moneyNOW

• Super-long roses cost $260 a dozen

• Toy industry unveils 2013 holiday lineup

• Why swimsuit issue is huge for Sports Illustrated