AAI Pilots Expectations for January 2015

[K-Mart]

Funny coming from someone with only a HS diploma . The AT NC. are all very bright guys with alot of experience.


Maybe your time might be better spent taking some night classes @ Atlanta community college .

Come on the guy has to have a degree. Really?

 

[Citrusflyer]

My take away from talks is at some point they pull the plug and cease all AT operations. Is that at 10 planes, 20, who knows.

April SWA starts the international runs. I don't think it will take more than six months to prove it isn't anything anyone else hasn't done, and therefore, ramp up will increase to swap all international to SWA side by Dec 2014.

So .. GK can go to the BOD and explain that he's parking 20 (+/-) revenue generating airplanes because he wants to appease SWAPA? Good luck there.

Oh, and San Juan (SWA starts in April) maybe an island in the Caribbean, but it is NOT international.

 

[Roomwithaview]

citrusflyer

Don't know that I agree with the parking 20 airplanes scenario. But, it's not about appeasing swapa or appeasing alpa, it's about abiding by the contracts that he twisted both our arms to sign. Remember that?

RWAV

 

[K-Mart]

Don't know that I agree with the parking 20 airplanes scenario. But, it's not about appeasing swapa or appeasing alpa, it's about abiding by the contracts that he twisted both our arms to sign. Remember that?

RWAV

Side Letter will fix it. We ain't grounding revenue generating planes. I would be furious if they did that

 

[Skyboy722]

So .. GK can go to the BOD and explain that he's parking 20 (+/-) revenue generating airplanes because he wants to appease SWAPA? Good luck there.

Oh, and San Juan (SWA starts in April) maybe an island in the Caribbean, but it is NOT international.

I was told that it has more to do with the shrinking fleet effect; where you reach a point where the fleet is so small that it becomes too inefficient and cost prohibitive to continue to operate it. That point is rumored to be around 10-20 aircraft.

I've been through fleet drawdowns before at other companies, and I seem to remember something like this happening. The plug gets pulled on the last dozen or so all at once.

 

[FlyinGuy]

Side Letter will fix it. We ain't grounding revenue generating planes. I would be furious if they did that

A Side Letter will not fix anything unless it has something that SWAPA wants. I for one will not give SWA any room to wiggle on this issue. We have been pressing them from the beginning on their timeline, but they continually assure us that they will meet the deadline. As far as being furious, that is how we felt when GK bought an airline, then dumped 2/3rds of their planes.

 

[shagadelic]

There is nothing in the agreement stating the 717s have to be parked by 2015. They just have to be in SWA colors and the people flying them need to have a Southwest ID and uniform. There is nothing preventing the company from issuing a bunch of ID cards and scratching out AirTran and replacing it with SWA on the side of the plane. There can be no AirTran on Jan 1, 2015...

 

[redflyer65]

There is nothing in the agreement stating the 717s have to be parked by 2015. They just have to be in SWA colors and the people flying them need to have a Southwest ID and uniform. There is nothing preventing the company from issuing a bunch of ID cards and scratching out AirTran and replacing it with SWA on the side of the plane. There can be no AirTran on Jan 1, 2015...

or a 5 dollar sticker on the nose.

 

[j41driver]

Regarding the pay reduction in line flying what's to keep you from transitioning now?

They'd might not be senior enough IN THEIR SEAT at AT to leave now even if the are holding a SWA 737 award.

Example: For a class of 24 SWA 737 FOs, the company determines which seats people will be released from. When they decide that, they put out a bid particular class which could be made up of (for example) 6 ATL 717 CAs, 6 ATL 717 FOs, 3 MCO 717 FOs, 3 MCO 717 CAs, and 6 MCO 737 FOs. If you aren't senior enough IN YOUR SEAT/BASE to hold a class at SWA that month, well you're outta luck. You could be the 7th most senior ATL 717 CA to hold a SWA 737 seat and you aren't going to class (because they only released 6 ATL 717 CAs) even though you might be the 7th guy on the entire AT list and all the people from other seats that are headed to SWA class are junior to you.

IMO, this is a huge reason why AT guys are ticked.

 

[HowardBorden]

A Side Letter will not fix anything unless it has something that SWAPA wants. I for one will not give SWA any room to wiggle on this issue. We have been pressing them from the beginning on their timeline, but they continually assure us that they will meet the deadline. As far as being furious, that is how we felt when GK bought an airline, then dumped 2/3rds of their planes.

I agree, no wiggle room should be given at all. If they can't comply with the timeline we need to extract the maximum amount of negotiating capital for their inability to live up to the commitments that they agreed to. We have section one scope for a reason, we gave plenty of time to incorporate AT into the operation. We waved section one scope to facilitate the process and that waiver ends January 1, 2015. After January 1, I see any AT aircraft still operating as a direct section 1 violation. Whether or not SWAPA agrees with that assessment is yet to be seen.

From Side Letter 10:
"AIRTRAN PILOT INTEGRATION RESULTING FROM SOUTHWEST
ACQUISITION OF AIRTRAN AIRWAYS
This section will be in effect until January 1, 2015, at which time it will become null and void, and the remainder of the Southwest/SWAPA CBA will be in full effect without any modifications delineated
within this section."

From the CBA:
"Flying conducted under the terms of a Codeshare Agreement and/or Marketing Agreement by non-Company pilots shall not be performed on aircraft owned, leased, operated, held on order or held on option by the Company or its Affiliates."