Konbanwa.
Still living the dream. EX-TZ warrior, here.
At the end of Oct. '04 ATA filed. FL "stepped in" and offered money to keep the company operating for about 6 months. FL was to get the MDW, DCA, LGA operation/slots. No airplanes. Employees were offered pref. interviews. ATA was going to reoganized as a charter ops. in IND. This didn't last long.
Parker/Cactus upped the ante with the help of the same hedge fund that bailed out Cactus, TPG, I think. The employees of ATA, all groups, were pretty d@mn happy about this offer. Synergies and all that. This didn't last long.
"Something" happened in the intervening days this was going to happen. Boeing wasn't too happy, we heard, because Parker only wanted the B75's for ETOPS. Their's weren't certified. He also didn't want to order any B737's since he was a "Bus man." The financing fell through. Herb called up George while he was driving to MDW, this according to George, to offer him a deal. The employee groups were a little deflated, but not disheartened. We knew this wasn't going to be pretty.
John G. Denison was named CEO by SWA, who offered more money and bought about 27% of the company. He cleaned house. Some of it was good, but there wasn't a plan by him, or anyone else going forward. He told a a captain friend of mine that he thought SWA would end up buying ATA, outright, within about 5 years. Still not so pretty.
Many SWA and ATA pilots shared crashpads in MDW. We also commuted quite regularly on each other all over the system. There was never an adversarial relationship between the employees of either airline, ever. We were pretty friendly and respectful of each other.
Now, during 2005 while ATA/ALPA's contract was slowly being gutted, we trimmed/slimmed down. Shed some of the mistakes of the previous administration, and made some new ones, e.g. B737-300s. We also found out that SWAPAs scope was quite specific. All flying by SWA owned entities were to be done by SWAPA pilots. Uh, oh. This was pre-McGaskill. SWAPA pilots made it clear through ALL channels that ATA/ALPA would be stapled. They wanted to do our flying, including the military. I'm just speaking of the pilots now. The other groups just wanted to keep their jobs. ATA slowly pulled out of all markets that we directly competed against SWA, namely Florida. ATA began flying in/out of FL. SWA didn't start until the late '90s. Some of us were quite disturbed by this. I worked the very last flight out of MCO to MDW. I was based there. It was their last day on the job. We were completely full. It was sad.
SWAPA and others in their management wanted out of this deal. SWA made money and learned a hell of a lot about what it takes to operate to various destinations such as ETOPS and Int'l. and LGA/DCA.
SWA went to Mattlin-Patterson to "help" out. ATA was sold out to them at this point, and Subodh Karnik was named CEO. ATA continued the code share. No offers of employment other than an initial 50 pilots in '05 was offered. We were told Herb was involved in this and the next merger with World Holdings.
Airtran initially hired more ATA pilots than SWA. However, I don't think that many of them remained. SWA has hired a trickle of ex ATA pilots since then. I think just as many are at World/NA, Kalitta, and Atlas as are at SWA. Far more have left the country.
SWA bought the ATA cert. in 2008 out of bankruptcy court. Took no airplanes or employees. Turned the cert. promptly into the FAA.
ATA and ALPA litigation against FEDEX, another story, was a dismal failure. I was out about $45K in lost vacation, commute credit, and Warn Act remittences. I'll get nothing.
It's been a hard 5 years for me and my family. My wife was a 24 year FA with ATA. She's out of the business now. I'm beyond it. I miss the people I worked with. Every now and then, like right now, something comes up to refresh what was lost.
My advice? I'll offer it unsolicited. Quitcherbitchin! None of you princesses in the US have any idea how good you've got it if you've haven't lost your job in the last 5 years. I'm on my 5th airlines since ATA, 4th expat job. Although I've flown with a lot of great people outside the US in this time, I'd rather be flying in the US with Americans. I've sat in many a jumpseat of US carriers in my 20 years of flying, and let me tell you, your sh!t does stink! I've seen you fly! None of you can claim to be better pilots/aviators than anyone else out there. Get over yourselves!
Now, back to your regularly scheduled whining. Crybabies.
