Airtran to cut growth in 09 and 10

[Kenney G]

Airtran was scheduled to take a total of 28 planes in 09 and 10 for a 10% growth rate each year. Now only taking 14 total in 09 and 10 for 5% growth each year.

 

[Max Powers]

are they delaying the rest of the deliveries or selling them?

 

[Moustache]

The key is there is still growth!!!!!!!

 

[easydoesit]

I agree there! Would you rather shrink, be stagnant, or grow? I think the approach is appropriate considering the state of the economy. With that said, the ecomomy has little to do with our contract. This thing is long overdue. I am dissapointed in BF, I thought he was going to play a different tune. Sounds like he is just like the rest of em. I like what someone posted earlier. PILOTS DON'T CHIP IN FOR GAS!

Let's get that FO pay up now to at least 2/3 Boss pay.

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

As far as the deliveries go, let's not forget that if economic conditions change, or if an opportunity presents itself (ie a merger and lots of gates opening somewhere), the delivery schedule could once again be increased. I sucks because expectations of the pilots are not met, but, I think it's smart from a bottom line standpoint.

All that being said, F.O. pay must go up.

 

[Thunderchief]

are they delaying the rest of the deliveries or selling them?

I don't have the 8K filing in front of me but I think it quoted BF as saying it would be a combination of both defering deliveries and selling delivered aircraft overseas.

TC

 

[AFcitrus]

It's obvious BF sees the writing on the wall with regards to the contract. He knows the pilots won't budge on our demands and he is going to have to make up for increased oil prices somewhere other than pilot labor. Talked to MB a few weeks ago and he said he believes the company is motivated and if neg. start again in Apr as he expects, we may very well have an agreement by the end of summer.

 

[Eagle757shark]

It's obvious BF sees the writing on the wall with regards to the contract. He knows the pilots won't budge on our demands and he is going to have to make up for increased oil prices somewhere other than pilot labor. Talked to MB a few weeks ago and he said he believes the company is motivated and if neg. start again in Apr as he expects, we may very well have an agreement by the end of summer.

Soaring fuel prices complicate AirTran's labor negotiations with pilots union

Jason Garcia
Sentinel Staff Writer
March 4, 2008

Record fuel prices are threatening to make long-running labor negotiations between AirTran Airways and its more than 1,500 pilots even more difficult.

With the price of oil rising beyond $100 a barrel, AirTran President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Fornaro said Monday that his company is unlikely to exceed -- or even match -- the deal that the National Pilots Association rejected last fall.

"I would say right now I'm not sure we would put that agreement back on the table. That was a $65-a-barrel agreement, and that's not where we are," Fornaro told analysts at the Raymond James Annual Institutional Investor Conference in Orlando. "We're taking a fresh eye as to what we're going to put on the table."

Capt. Mike Best, the pilots association's president, would not comment on Fornaro's remarks, citing a "media blackout" imposed by the National Mediation Board, which has been overseeing the talks since September 2005.

AirTran, a unit of Orlando-based AirTran Holdings Inc., has been haggling with its pilots over a new contract for nearly three years. Company executives and previous union leaders reached a tentative deal last August on a pact that called for $54 million worth of raises and benefit increases over a little more than four years.

But the deal unraveled when 60 percent of union members voted against it. The union also voted to oust the leadership team that negotiated the pact.

AirTran executives have vowed to keep a lid on labor costs. Fornaro noted on Monday that AirTran stands to benefit if bigger rivals Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, which are trying to negotiate a merger that would create the world's largest airline, have to "buy off" labor groups with concessions to ensure they don't object to a deal.

"That means our cost advantage will widen," Fornaro said. "It will be harder and harder for them [the legacy carriers] to match our prices."

In another nod to stratospheric fuel costs, AirTran also announced further cuts in its growth plans Monday: Fornaro said the airline has struck deals to sell to an undisclosed buyer a pair of Boeing 737s it currently has on order.

AirTran also revealed in regulatory filings that it has cut its expected growth in seat capacity nearly in half -- to 5 percent in each of 2009 and 2010. AirTran had previously projected capacity growth of 8 percent in 2009 and 10 percent in 2010.




Jason Garcia can be reached at [email protected] or 407-420-5414

 

[Penguin46]

See AAI's Public Plans With These Filings (SEC Form 8-k)

are they delaying the rest of the deliveries or selling them?

Here's a tool to provide info. These filings are a decent tool for research.

http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/fetchFilingFrameset.aspx?dcn=0001193125-08-043948&Type=HTML

Usually easy to read, none of the accountant/lawyer jargon. Maybe not as fun as this board though.
Hope it helps.

 

[fam62c]

It would seem to me that fuel goes up for everybody so if AirTran had a cost advantage over it's competitors at 65 they should maintain the same margin at 100/bbl. Everybody's ticket prices rise but AAI will still be cheaper. Also, AAI isn't flying old stuff like MD-80's and DC-9's so the fuel increase effect should be less for them. I suppose as ticket prices rise the number of travelers begins to shrink and load factors fall. Still, people choose the cheapest carriers for the most part and AAI will still be cheaper. Maybe as ticket prices rise AAI will actually get more business because former legacy business customers will now have to book AAI. AAI grew fast post-9/11 in a rotten economy, what's changed here?