"The industry is in the best position it's been in a long time for any good economic environment to produce real shareholder return because of all the things we've done to get through this difficult period," Parker said, citing airline cost cuts, capacity reductions and new fees for travel services.
But he said that without structural change, US carriers are open to the same risks that have kept them in a state of nearly constant jeopardy in the last decade. "The biggest fear is that there are so many things that we are vulnerable to still because our industry just isn't structurally strong and able to take shocks," he said. Parker noted such factors as economic recession, which last year eroded travel demand; the volatile cost of jet fuel, which is one of the top two expenses for any major carrier; and the threat of new competition for passengers.
Parker said terror scares, such as the foiled Christmas Day bomb plot on board a Northwest Airlines flight, also threaten to undo the financial progress airlines have made. A remedy for this perpetual instability is airline mergers, said Parker, who has long advocated industry consolidation.
US Airways was formed in 2005 from the merger of America West and the former US Airways, in a deal engineered by Parker, who later tried to merge his airline with Delta Air Lines Inc. Delta rejected the offer in 2007 and bought Northwest Airlines instead.
US Airways on Thursday posted a narrower-than-expected fourth-quarter loss and noted an improving economic environment for airlines. Parker said, however, that the improved results show US Airways is a viable airline even without a merger. "I just think five hub-and-spoke (major US) airlines is inefficient," he said.
"The most important consolidation that could happen would be some consolidation of some existing hub-and-spoke airlines." Parker said the chance for mergers is greater when carriers are struggling for survival. Without that urgency, it is hard to say whether US carriers are likely to merge in 2010, he said.
"While those types of crises certainly help facilitate consolidation, they're not required," Parker said. The US airline industry suffered in 2009 from a drop in demand for business travel. That demand is "absolutely, positively" returning, he said. US Airways said on Thursday that so far in January its corporate-booked revenue is up 22 percent year-over-year.
Parker also said the industry, which slashed capacity in 2008 and 2009, has got about the right number of seats available to meet current demand and he does not expect much expansion or contraction among major airlines. He said there is still room for additional fees for in-flight services such as the bag check charges that became common among US airlines in 2008.
He said, for example, that US Airways would like to find an efficient way to let passengers pay to upgrade to a more desirable seat within their cabin. For now, only passengers who check in for a US Airways flight on the Internet can do that.