Airborne and DHL Pilots

[PCL Flt-ops]

So now that DHL and Airborne are one company, how does it work with the pilots? Are you going to be merged into one seniority list?

What about the two pilot contracts, who's contract will be used? It's my understanding that Airborne was the company with better pay and more aircraft, but DHL was a bigger overall company.

 

[AV8OR]

Wow!

Alright, here ya go in a nutshell....

DHL ground bought Airborne ground.........leaving the respective airlines behind.

DHL Airways, was purchased, lock stock and barrel, by three US investors, the CEO/owner being John Dasburg former NWA CEO for 15 years. He changed the name to AStar Air Cargo, and we have an ACMI agreement with DHL.


Airborne, the airline side, became ABX Air, and is publicly traded and also has an ACMI agreement with Airborne.

Right now, no DHL freight flys on ABX aircraft and no Airborne freight flys on AStar aircraft.
When Dasburg bought DHL Airways, he planned to purchase ABX Air, but wasn't allowed to. (probably in an effort to play AStar and ABX off one another)

Unless one buys the other, there will be no merged list. The big difference contractually between AStar and ABX is that DHL ground actually signed our contract scope and all, but because they sold the company. claims they don't have to honor it at all. We are currently in court and we'll see.

Where either company is going right now, who knows?

 

[PCL Flt-ops]

What are the chances of the two airlines being merged into one?

 

[AV8OR]

Really above my pay grade but...

Our fleet's aren't compatable, they fly the straight pipe 8's with no cargo door, dc9's with no cargo door and a few 767's, and I'm not sure they're cargo door config. We fly 72's, DC8-73's, and a handful of A300-B's which we'll probably replace, all with the standard cargo door config. Their fleet works fine for their facility at Wilmington, but ours are compatable with the DHL facility at CVG. I suppose they someone could buy both and merge them but, I'll be surprised, just because it will be a MAJOR headache for whoever does. Time will tell. At the pace with which have historically moved here, I'll be retired by then, 23 years from now.

 

[abxaviator]

"Right now, no DHL freight flys on ABX aircraft..."

Actually, we have a LOT of yellow DHL packages on our flights, more each day. I had assumed the opposite was true as well, but perhaps not.

Personally, I feel I glimpsed the future when I walked on the ramp in EWR last week. In the garage, the DHL and ABX equipment was completely intermingled and outside was a neat little lineup of ABX-767, ABX-767, DHL-727, and ABX-DC9 with one employee group loading all of them.

 

[Hose A. Jiminez]

Re: Wow!

He changed the name to AStar Air Cargo, and we have an ACMI agreement with DHL.

Airborne, the airline side, became ABX Air, and is publicly traded and also has an ACMI agreement with Airborne.

Yikes,

So what happens when this agreement is overwith and the low rent ACMI companies start bidding?

Does the current agreement prevent them from using other companies now?

 

[AV8OR]

Hose...

Well, supposedly it does. Supposedly we, AStar, have right of first refusal on all new DHL product, but, we don´t have a friggin clue what´s going to happen because our scope clause is tied up in the blackhole of the NLRB. At this point I think all of us, AStar and ABX pilots alike, are hoping for the best and prayin against the worst. We´ll just have to see.

"Right now, no DHL freight flys on ABX aircraft..."

Actually, we have a LOT of yellow DHL packages on our flights, more each day. I had assumed the opposite was true as well, but perhaps not.

Personally, I feel I glimpsed the future when I walked on the ramp in EWR last week. In the garage, the DHL and ABX equipment was completely intermingled and outside was a neat little lineup of ABX-767, ABX-767, DHL-727, and ABX-DC9 with one employee group loading all of them.

I have no idea whether the DHL side is flying ABF material or not. I am spending most of my time in Europe flying military charters these days. I had just heard, I thought, thatthey weren´t going to co-mingle it just. Guess I heard wrong.

 

[AV8OR]

Possibility on yellow package issue...

I forgot that one of the reasons there may be some comingling of the DHL and Airborne packages is because as the "Airborne" brand is retired, so will the packaging, so evenif it´s techinically Airborne freight, it might be "packaged" DHL. Just a possibility.

 

[abxaviator]

I would agree with that hypothesis and that, eventually, all would be DHL "packaged". So my question is this, when you say there is no comingling, what is your definition of "Airborne freight" or "DHL freight"?

 

[AV8OR]

I really don't know.....

........if there's co-mingling or not. Really, at this point, with various waybills and packaging I wouldn't know if there was any co-mingling going on anyway. I mean, how could you tell? As far as the definition of "Airborne" or "DHL" freight, at this point, who knows. I sure don't. To behonest, I'd say my definition is irrelevant. Not trying to dodge, just falls outside my focus.