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I missed the pilot meeting, do we have more coming than the current Delta and 1 American?
 
Joe said that we currently hold all of IAI's conversion slots through 2008, and are looking at buying more, now, no announcement of frames, outside of the one AA bird. (he did say that finding frames to put through the line was the hard part...) As far as the DHL 76's he said that it would be foolish for anyone but us to fly them on the US side. Hinted about a 6 time per week European run for who, not sure.

Also talked to some union honchos, negotiations sound good, no really thats what they said! Hopefully some news soon.
 
Latest scheduling minutes referenced an ANC 767 trip (originally to start this month but delayed a few weeks). Anybody have the details on that one?
 
Didn't hear anything about the 76 ANC trip. I did hear that at the latest BotUp meeting it was mentioned that 8-9 9's would be gone in 12 mos. and all would be gone in 5 years. Talk about doom and gloom :(
 
Today in bottums up they said approx 9 additional IAI slots for 767 conversions this year. they are "aggressively" pursuing additional 767's for conversion. they said DHL has forecast about 8 or so DC9's gone this year. Also estimated 3-5 yrs for the fleet. They said no furloughs. DC8's anyones guess, but probably not long. We pickup ANC and probably IAH, but lose SJU and probably SFO. A lot of positive talk about ANA.
 
Also they are putting together a bid (or have bid) on a TNT charter (767) for Burlington from TOL to Hamburg (I think) on weekends.
 
I would surmise then that the 767 might be taking over the PDX-ANC run which would account for some of the 9's being parked.

Some of the cities I have heard may be losing a 9 are LBB, ABQ, HRL, SWF, and PWM.

As far as the 8's, Joe said in the crew meeting the other night that we would "be out of the DC-8 business by November".
 
Not sure about PDX-ANC, but the trip being referred to is ILN-ANC. According to scheduling. Also the IAH (if we get it) will be day/night.
 
It does seem like the picture is clearing up a bit, although our new paradigm in the DHL/ACMI world means that schedule/city changes will be the norm. The days of camping out on certain weekends or racetracked cities may come to an end for most. Plenty of "junior" crewmembers never got to join that party anyway.

Right now it looks like we're heading for an all 767 fleet, maybe 70 or so by the time the 9's are parked? If you run the numbers of retirements/training cycles/staffing for international flights we should all keep our jobs, though there's not any big hiring booms in that scenario.

It appears to me that DHL's U.S. strategy is going to involve through-stopping or dropping smaller cities, so that's why I'm thinking there won't be a smaller "replacement airplane" for the DC-9. It seems that DHL is planning to focus on their global market share and not attempt to expand against FedEx/UPS in the U.S. If they can put together all the pieces they've bought, maybe they'll return to that in the future.

I can't even guess about Astar's role. 70 767's isn't nearly enough lift for even a streamlined or reduced U.S. presence. Apparently DHL is forced to keep them flying under the current ACMI, but I'm sure DHL would like to replace the DC8/727/A300 fleet in the next 5 years also.
 
Sorry, I didn't take notes, so stuff keepes coming back to me slowly. They said in bottoms up, that they are thinking of having a "super" bid that stretches out into the future, so they can see where people will be moving to/from. They didn't say "hiring", but got the impression, they want to see where the needs will be so they can plan for that as needed.
 
Thanks for the info from the pilot meeting, MJH767.

ABX website updates are running behind this week. Anyone know the breakdown on the proffer awards? Don't need names, just curious what seats the bids came from.
 
xspud said:
Thanks for the info from the pilot meeting, MJH767.

ABX website updates are running behind this week. Anyone know the breakdown on the proffer awards? Don't need names, just curious what seats the bids came from.
Click to expand...

All 4 76 CA's will be coming from the left seat of the 9.

Both 8 CA's will be from the left seat of the 9.

76 FO's will be 3 DC8 right seaters and 1 DC9 FO

DC9 CA's will be 3 9 FO's and 3 76 FO's
 
Based on how the last proffers filled out, I would guess they need another 9Ca proffer of 6 to 8 just keep the same (understaffed) level.
 
GoABX said:
Based on how the last proffers filled out, I would guess they need another 9Ca proffer of 6 to 8 just keep the same (understaffed) level.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they were behind right out of the gate. We lost a total of 8 CA's last month (5 to the 76 and 3 retired) and only had the class of 6.
 
xspud said:
Latest scheduling minutes referenced an ANC 767 trip (originally to start this month but delayed a few weeks). Anybody have the details on that one?
Click to expand...


We will start flying a 767 ILN-ANC replacing the NWA flight and the DC9 out of PDX.... Not sure of the exact date, a few weeks I think...
 
makes sense with the Transmile flight from Asia through ANC then RIV, some of the west coast freight makes it to RIV. And the freight from ILN can go direct and then on to Asia
 
ke4lir said:
Do you think anyone would actually bid it? Or can I plan on being junior manned into it?
Click to expand...

Anybodys guess. I for one would not want to go through that torture to only be on the aircraft for 5 months and then get surplussed back to the same aircraft I just came out of and go through more training.

Oh wait....almost forgot about that highly coveted SIC type rating! :pimp:
 
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I talked to two 9 FOs that already plan to go back to the 8 they figure the a/c will be around for a while might even end up back in MIA.
 
When did you hear this? We (nwa freight dogs) knew we would lose our lovely ILN layover but thought it would be in 08 when the contract is up. We figured we would be replaced with Polar. Are you saying this is happening in the near future, because ILN is at least in our May bid packages?? Going to miss the BW3, Damons, Kroger, and last but not least Tractor supply:)
 
cobra, we have to keep our ears to the ground here or we usually don't hear anything, change without notice is the order of the day in the DHL world. So there hasn't been any official notice and I don't think the trip is on our May bid.

There was a reference in our latest union/company scheduling committee minutes to a 767 ANC trip being "postponed up to 4 weeks". Like most pilots, I hadn't heard anything about an ANC trip to begin with. abxdx posted about replacing NW and he has always had good info. DHL has been on a major push to cut costs on the air side, I assume the 767 would be cheaper than the 747 (plus the PDX-ANC DC9). Since the DHL consolidation we frequently bid trips that change or go away. I'm sure our PDX-ANC trip will be on our May bid, also.
 
Nothing that earth shattering. Many calls were not taken due to lack of time. Many people were not happy with: 1. proposed pay rates 2. 23 day blocks in Japan 3. lack of tiered vacation 4. rampant open time.

Anyone heard any numbers on the size of next week's mega-bid? Supposed to take the 76 through September.
 

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