AA closes St. Louis

[English]

Latest rumor...anyone care to substantiate?

APA is in a big hurry to put Eagle on their seniority list because they believe AMR management is considering shutting down all operations in STL. This would reduce the number of pilots needed at American Airlines to about 8500 from the present 13,500 -ish. With Eagle on the list, it would cushion the AA pilots furloughed. Supposed to happen sometime early 2003.

This is JUST a rumor. Any thoughts?


Before anyone poo-poos me, remember I was right about Executive being sold...I put it out here three days before it happened...but then again, I could be wrong.

Game on.

 

[TWA Dude]

Game off.

The Greenbook Supplement CC guarantees a minimum number of STL-based captains, right now around 800 plus change. The APA wished to avoid the exact scenario you envision so they put it in writing. As it stands AA seems to want to shrink the STL base to the bare minimum dictated by CC and their own interpretation of CC means that the guaranteed captain positions have to fly a 717 or larger airplane.

Keep those rumors coming; I'd love to get my job back!

 

[English]

Game on, again...

I don't believe that AA would hesitate for a second, especially in the current economy, to claim financial hardship and close a base that they thought might cost too much for too little return. Keep in mind, that's not what I'm saying is happening in STL.

What I'm saying is the green book has provisions for divestiture. The STL pilots that were "guaranteed" seats might just have to start commuting to DFW or ORD to keep them.

Besides, this is only a rumor, don't confuse it with facts!

 

[eaglefly]

STL does not support 5000 mainline pilot positions, but less than 2000.

TWA had 2700 at time of sale. 500 on furlough and 250 retired.

Concern is that much of STL is headed toward American Connection RJ's replacing mainline and screwing BOTH AA and Eagle pilots.

 

[TWA Dude]

What I'm saying is the green book has provisions for divestiture. The STL pilots that were "guaranteed" seats might just have to start commuting to DFW or ORD to keep them.

You're right; that's not an impossible scenario. Southwest hasn't grown in STL for years because TWA has been effectively competing. A full scale pullout of mainline yets would give SW the maneuvering room they desire to expand again. Possible but not probable.

Of course the biggest question mark for the immediate future is the war situation. The Greenbook has many provisions that aren't susceptible to force majeur and CC is one of them. If AA wanted to divest the TWA assessts I think that time was a year ago before they became completely knee deep into the transition. Buying TWA was a great idea at the time and while it's not so clear today I think they've more to lose than to gain by divesting.

 

[Jeff Helgeson]

Poo-poo foe English

English:

First of all, the selling of Executive to get around the scope clause is no great prediction. AMR had talked about that for years. I believe the plan was to sell Exec. and start an RJ base at RDU. AMR has been pushing the scope limits and has diverted about 12 Eagle RJs to the "American Connection". This is a whole other set of issues about scope, Eagle contract, and contractor diversity to help AMR avoid a situation like Comair.

STL: The Green Book and "Force Manure" - sure anything can happen in a crisis, changes, etc. However, STL is shrinking to the bare minimum and has always been a money maker for TWA, even when it was loosing money in many other places. The D concourse has had many gates converted to accomodate "jet-bridges" for the RJs.

AMR is spending millions to update the facilities at STL while they are shrinking the operation, but contest they have no intentions of closing the base and are planning for the future. What equipment and who does the flying, may be the big question. A total closure of STL, I don't think so!

I have worked for AMR for over 13 years as a mainline Flight Attendant, an Eagle pilot (Yes, Executive), and TWA and TWA LLC and don't think I am an expert at what they are going to do. Maybe you having Sunday dinner with Mr. Carty, so dazzle us with more predictions that have been out there for years!

It's nothing personal. I am just tired of all the poo-poo with my career and today is my two week anniversity on furlough with TWA LLC/AA.

Jeff

PS: If you want credibility, why don't you put your name and back ground with your post?!

 

[English]

My name and background ARE on my post. See my profile. It's all right there. What else do you want to know?

The first two posts under this thread were made by an Eagle buddy of mine using my sign-in name while I was showing him this website.