Now it’s American and US Airways turn.

For decades we have seen airlines, many who are struggling to survive, decide to merge with a competing airline in an attempt to emerge as a stronger carrier. In fact, some airlines today are the product of a series of mergers and acquisitions. Southern Airways once a proud airline, was combined with Hughes Airwest and then was swallowed up by Republic Airlines…which was later acquired by Northwest Airlines, which was then merged with Delta Airlines (talk about needing a scorecard).

I look at airline mergers as a game of who are you going to take to the ball. Everyone wants to go with the best looking date, but then there’s the reality that probably won’t happen. So, do you go alone or go with anyone who will say yes?

In the recent era of airline mergers, US Airways and American are the two last legacy airlines looking for a date. American, on one side, was determined to go it alone. Forget what people say or think, they can make it alone. US Airways, on the other hand, has been posturing for years trying to get a merger with any airline who would say yes. American Airlines, weakened through the long and trying process of bankruptcy (and under incredible pressure from their creditors) has finally decided to go to the ball with US Airways.

Much as United and Continental, these two airlines are rushing towards a merger under the impression it will allow them to better compete with the now-combined Delta and Northwest powerhouse. United and Continental have found out, painfully so, that merging two airlines together will not solve many of the systemic problems the airlines were battling before the merger. In fact, the merger process could actually make the situation…worse.

Enter US Airways and American. If these two airlines believe a merger will solve their competitive problems, they have a very loud and rude awakening coming. I state this because both airlines have reputations for employee misery. Employment contracts with various union groups many times expire and the two sides will then spend years trying to hammer out a new agreement. US Airways merged with America West in 2005 (that is eight years ago) and they still are having problems integrating the America West pilots with their own flight crews.

In short, this merger could become a mess of historic proportions.

As for now, we simply wait for the announcement that the two airlines have decided to initiate the official merger process. The headlines will scream about the post-merger emergence of the world’s largest airline; 6,500 daily flights with nearly 95,000 employees. They will repaint their planes, change their employee uniforms and will slap a new coat of paint on decade-old problems.

Somewhere along the line these two airlines may conclude that rushing to grab a date for the ball many not have been such a good idea after all.