When federal bankruptcy judge Peter Walsh officially approved American's bid to purchase substantially all of the assets of TWA on March 12, president and CEO Don Carty proclaimed it "a great day for American." The two airlines, both of which date their lineage back 75 years or more to aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, would begin forming one larger family.

In some cases, quite literally.

Maureen Hurbough, a Human Resources staff assistant, is in her 14th year with American. That's thanks in large part to the encouragement of her father, Don McAllister, whose 33 years in the airline industry have led him to his current position, proudly wearing the uniform of a TWA ramp service agent, the equivalent of what AAers know as a fleet service clerk.

"Dad was the one who initially wanted me to go get a job at American," recalls Hurbough. "I was newly married [to her husband of 15 years, Scott] and needed a good full-time job, and dad prompted me to check out AA."

Now McAllister, who's been through the buyout procedure before when he was with Ozark as it was purchased by TWA in 1986, will be joining his daughter at AA. It's a company he's had his eye on for a long time.

"You have to be doing things right at American to be where you are now," says McAllister. "I can remember when I was with Ozark, American wasn't near as big as it is now. You have top management and your employees put their back to it.

"I'm tickled to be going with you people. We worked hard to make things go here at TWA and we're sorry that didn't work out, but now we just need to work together for American."

The Family Business
Hurbough counts being around airplanes among her earliest memories. "It's something that's always been in the family, since dad's always worked around them," she says. "When I was a kid, when he was at a smaller station, he could take us back to the airport after they shut down for the evening and take us up into the aircraft, into the cockpit. That was neat for a little kid."

And just as the American family is extending with the addition of TWA's proud legacy, the McAllister clan has extended its own presence in the industry. Maureen's sister LuAnn is married to a regional jet pilot for Atlantic Coast, while her brother, also named Don, is an operations manager for a freight company at DFW.

Though numerous details surrounding the employee integration process still need to be worked out, both McAllister and Hurbough have demonstrated flexibility, especially in the name of family, on the job.

McAllister, like his daughter some years later, was looking for a new line of work 33 years ago in Waterloo, Iowa. "Back I '68, someone told me working for the airline wasn't a bad job, and so I stopped by the airport and asked them about it. I was driving an 18 wheeler at the time and said 'that's enough of this.' That's how I got started." He and his wife Muriely transferred to the Dallas area in 1974, where they raised their six children, including Hurbough.

"There've been a lot of changes over the years," he says. "I worked at the ticket counter at Ozark, at operations, loading, just about everything. When TWA bought us out, we had to choose between ramp service and the ticket counter. I'd worked quite a while upstairs and I felt I needed a change so I stayed down below.

The job choices were often driven by the fact that, as McAllister says, "Having a large family, you never have a lot of extra time." And though Hurbough remembers plenty of family non-rev travel (usually back to Iowa to visit family, naturally), she is learning that lesson herself.

With young son Nicholas now around, she's into a job-share position working primarily with the employee travel program. Echoing her father's sentiments, she says, "Right now we don't really have any spare time with a 20-month old in the house. But we enjoy traveling whenever we can."

"Change your uniform, dad!"
Cementing the family-first theme, both McAllister and Hurbough see any story about their own AA/TWA family ties as a chance to show off each other. "The guys who work down on the ramp deserve all the credit they can get," says Hurbough. "This is a chance for my dad to be in the spotlight for all of them."

McAllister, meanwhile, says simply, "I think it's terrific that you're doing a story like this about my daughter, she's always been very happy at American."

As they talk to each other about the new corporate family, father and daughter seem to understand each other — and the situation — perfectly. "I tell him, 'you're gonna have to change that uniform again, dad,'" says Hurbough. "He just laughs at that." And, ever practical, McAllister knows his job will stay largely the same, concluding, "You people haul a lot of freight, too."