40 more at NWA

[charley varrick]

Jeff Carlson, VP of Flight Ops at NWA, announced 40 more furlough effective 1 Oct 2002. He also stated (gulp) that recalls were nowhere in sight.

I am now going to assume the supine position and begin sucking my opposable thumb. Anybody have a blanky?

 

[Seeniner]

Just watched the video myself at pilotinfo.nwa.com. You have to be an employee (or furloughed) to access it.

This stinks.

 

[Frac Daddy]

Did you mean...

Did you mean that the END of the furloughs were not in sight? Not trying to be a wise guy. Just need clarification. If that is true, it bites.

 

[justApilot]

Out of curiosity, what are the hire dates of those being furloughed?

 

[tbkane]

First let me say I am sorry as a furloughed guy it sucks. What happened? NWA has been saying a recall was possible as soon as Q4 2002. This would mean that they are not going to recall. I was really hoping that they would start the call back.

 

[charley varrick]

This goes back to around Feb of 2000. Reason stated for the additional furloughs was that the yields were not coming back at the projected levels (read: business traveler). They are going to bring back capacity a bit more in the Fall of 02. The 40 were being held on because NWA had planned on the start of recovery in the end of 02, with a strong rebound in 03 and needed these pilots for the staffing levels to work out. They no longer see this in their tea leaves.

Only positive hint was that 03 had some "promising" indicators, but they were much further back than they had originally anticipated. I have no idea what that statement means, because I don't know how anybody could see that far into the future.

There is no word on any more furloughs beyond this 40 in Oct; however, he (Jeff Carlson) did leave that door open.

 

[AMR01]

If lower yields truly were the issue then you would think NW would quit shooting down the 20 dollar hike on round trip airfare prices. This in itself wouldn't bring back profitability but it could ease or prevent this type of situation. Just my 2 cents worth.

Hopefully this will not come to be, and if it does hopefully very short. Good Luck

 

[barbarian4]

what a bummer...

 

[JohnDoe]

Well, so much for our fourth quarter recalls.............crap!!!!!!!!!!

 

[B. Rubble]

NWA ALPA is considering the removal of COBRA benefits for
furloughed pilots. Time to look at a different career.

 

[charley varrick]

NWA ALPA is considering the removal of COBRA benefits for

Where did you get that info?

 

[Humty72]

I THINK I AM GOING TO THROW UP NOW.

 

[Seeniner]

To clarify Rubbles ramble,
The word from ALPA is the MEC disscussed today the possibility of extending medical benefits beyond the 12 months already set forth. The MEC will vote in October whether or not to release a vote to the entire membership, as was previously done.

See

 

[MsFan]

I think I smell BS

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Unit revenue at Northwest Airlines (NasdaqNM: NWAC - News) Corp. , the nation's fourth-largest carrier, will likely be down "only" about 2% this month from a year ago as the carrier's revenue performance continues to improve from the post- Sept. 11 falloff, said Richard Anderson, the company's chief executive, Wednesday.

Northwest's systemwide unit revenue, or revenue for each mile a seat is flown, declined 2.2% in May from a year ago - an improvement from the first quarter's drop of nearly 7%, Anderson said at a Merrill Lynch transportation conference in New York .

"The revenue performance of the airline continues to improve," Anderson said


From another article: "Northwest ran a 13 percent smaller schedule in the first quarter than a year earlier, Anderson said. The airline expects the schedule to be 11 percent smaller in the second quarter than a year ago and 5 percent smaller for the year.

"We may actually pull down a bit more (capacity) in the fall, depending on what traffic looks like," Anderson said.

Northwest reported a $171 million net loss in the first quarter, when it had about $2.6 billion cash on hand. It has more than $2.7 billion in cash right now, Anderson said. "


O.K., let me see if I got this right. Revenue is only down 2% from where it was last year at this time. "Revenue performance continues to improve" Anderson says. Right now we're running an 11% smaller schedule than last year, but by the end of the year it's only going to be 5% smaller. So flying is gonna increase. We have more cash on hand right now than we did after losing $171 mill in the first quarter.

So we're gonna furlough another 40 in October?!

I certainly am no expert on economics or pilot staffing or how to run an airline or just about anything else, but holy sh!t does this seem more than a little strange to anyone else? All indications up to this point made it seem like NWA was holding its own in bad times, if not outperforming most in the industry. Anderson's statements above seem to back that up. So now out of the blue they're gonna put another 40 on the street? Is it just me or does anyone else smell BS? Any chance there's a connection between this and the fact that contract negotiations start next Jan? I'm not implying there is, but this just doesn't seem to add up.

Not the news I was expecting or wanting to hear.

 

[charley varrick]

"We may actually pull down a bit more (capacity) in the fall, depending on what traffic looks like," Anderson said.

That is why the furloughs are going to happen. They are going to squeeze every last drop of work they can out of each pilot they have (can we say most productive major airline pilot group?). It is not going to be pretty, especially from where you and I sit.

If this is BS, let's hope that it was doled out to the pilots and not to Wallstreet. I much prefer RA's spin to JC's.

 

[filejw]

When you replace DC10s with B757s you need less people.Flying hrs will be the same next winter so 100 less S/Os needed, 60 retirements = 40 pilots out of work till spring.