Any "Latest & Greatest" About Atlas?

[BayBum37ft]

Hey Hal In Texas Hows it going over seas?

Greg

 

[HalinTexas]

Passed my JCAB check on Thurs. Two more weeks of GS, then observation rides, then right seat OJT, then left seat OJT. I've got at least two more months until I'm signed off.

 

[JonnyKnoxville]

Atlas Crewmembers,
The Atlas Air Executive Council and Atlas Air, Inc. have entered into an agreement related to hiring Local 1224 pilots to fill up to 15 Atlas B767 First Officer vacancies.

The terms of this agreement were announced to every member of Teamsters Local 1224 just moments ago.
Under the terms of our agreement, Atlas Air, Inc. will give preference to pilots who are current and qualified on the B767 and currently on the seniority list of a Local 1224 carrier (hereinafter, “Local 1224 pilot(s)”) prior to hiring any other pilots for expanded B767 operations as describe above, subject to the following conditions: (1) the Local 1224 pilot meets all of the company’s minimum requirements applicable to other newly hired pilots as published on the company’s website (http://www.atlasair.com/aa/careers.asp); (2) the Local 1224 pilot meets all of the company’s FAA-approved short course training qualifications as set forth below; (3) the Local 1224 pilot applies for the position on or before December 28, 2012; (4) the Local 1224 pilot successfully completes an interview; and (5) the Local 1224 pilot can meet the training dates required by the company. Atlas Air, Inc.’s short course training requirements are as follows:
1. ATPL
2. Class 1 Medical
3. PIC Type Rating on the B 757/767 aircraft
4. Minimum of 1000 hours on the B 767 aircraft, any series (200/300/300ER etc.)
5. Last flight on the aircraft within the last 12 months
6. No other aircraft flown in between (except for aircraft not requiring a type rating)
7. Last 121 PC within the last 18 months
If the company receives more Local 1224 pilot applications than there are positions to be filled, the company may offer employment to qualified Local 1224 pilots as described above in seniority based upon date of hire. Notwithstanding the above, Local 1224 pilots that are hired by the company shall be placed on the Atlas Air Pilot System Seniority List in accordance with the agreement. A Local 1224 pilot’s date of hire at his current employer shall not affect his placement on the Atlas Air Pilot System Seniority List.
Atlas Air, Inc. retains sole discretion to ultimately make the decision as to whether it will hire an applicant even if all of the foregoing conditions are satisfied.
If you are interested in applying for a B767 First Officer position at Atlas Air, Inc. and if you are not already an applicant or in the hiring pool at Atlas, go to the Atlas website (http://www.atlasair.com/aa/careers.asp) and follow the instructions under “Flight Crew Recruitment.” Applications must be received by Atlas Air, Inc. on or before December 28, 2012. If you are applying for one of the above positions (and meet the minimum requirements) now, have previously applied, or are in the hiring pool, please notify Local 1224 by logging into the union Website and submitting the form provided athttps://www.apa1224.org/form_HiringPreferential.asp.
In solidarity, the Atlas ExCo is glad to be able to extend this opportunity to our brothers and sisters at Local 1224 and wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.

 

[JonnyKnoxville]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-14/air-cargo-slowdown-puts-squeeze-on-specialist-carriers.html?cmpid=yhoo

Air Cargo Slowdown Puts Squeeze on Specialist Carriers

By Robert Wall - Dec 14, 2012 11:06 AM ET


Dedicated air-freight operators are struggling to remain viable as a sluggish economy undermines their ability to compete with the cargo space on offer from carriers focused on the more buoyant passenger market.
Companies such as Cargolux Airlines International SA, Europe’s top freight-only carrier, are reviewing their business models, while Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA), which runs a cargo-only unit alongside its passenger routes, has idled planes.

Tony Tyler, chief executive officer of the International Air Transport Association. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg

Dubai-based Emirates may overtake Lufthansa as the world’s biggest cargo-carrying passenger airline next year on the strength of its passenger-plane orders alone. Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg

An employee walks towards a Lufthansa Cargo freight container at Rhein-Main airport in Frankfurt. Photographer: Hannelore Foerster/Bloomberg
The utilization of freighter aircraft has slumped below 42 percent as capacity far outstrips demand, the International Air Transport Association said yesterday. That’s forcing cargo specialists to target marginal markets where they don’t have to compete with hold space available from passenger operators.

“For the pure freight guys it is going to be tough,” Niko Herrmann, an aviation specialist at Oliver Wyman in Zurich, said in an interview. “Carriers may be forced to seek partnerships and consolidate to gain scale, or to exit the market.”

Recent examples of partnerships prompted by tougher markets include a linkup between AirBridgeCargo Airlines, the scheduled freight division of Russian heavy-lift specialist Volga-Dnepr Airlines, and Air Cargo Germany GmbH, Herrman said.

Forecasts from IATA, which represents 240 airlines, suggest there’s little chance of an earnings rebound in the $70 billion market any time soon, with cargo yields, a measure of prices, expected to drop 2 percent this year and 1.5 percent in 2013.

FedEx, UPS

As the economic crisis drags into a fifth year, planes are flying with only 44 percent of cargo space taken up, including belly capacity on passenger jets, with the market essentially “stagnant,” IATA Chief Executive Officer Tony Tyler said.

Volumes of high-value goods, a staple of international air freight, have declined as people rein in spending, said Rafael Echevarne, economics director at Airports Council International.

While overall freight demand remains flat, air shipments have contracted by 1.2 percent this year, according to ACI. That’s been reflected at major hubs, with a 13.1 percent slump at Anchorage in Alaska, a base for FedEx Corp. (FDX) and United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS), the two biggest cargo carriers with volumes of 6.87 million tons and 4.64 million tons respectively last year.
Incheon airport, the main hub for Korean Air Lines Co. (003490), had a 1.9 percent fall. The carrier ranks fourth worldwide by cargo tonnage and second among companies that are also passenger operators, behind Cologne, Germany-based Lufthansa.

Even where demand for high-end products remains robust, manufacturers such as Apple Inc. (AAPL) are still switching to less costly surface transport for some shipments of items such as iPhones and iPads, making customers wait, Wyman’s Herrmann said.

Consolidation

Cargo-only operators have responded by targeting “whole new product flows” in markets such as Turkey, Africa and South America, Bill Flynn, CEO of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc. (AAWW), told investors last month. Purchase, New York-based Atlas is the world’s largest operator of Boeing Co. (BA) 747 freighters.

Herrmann said that while adding new markets and being “very smart” about optimizing route networks can aid independent carriers, pockets of growth tend to be quickly flooded with capacity, driving down prices and profitability.
That’s fostering mergers, he said, citing the 49 percent stake in Frankfurt Hahn-airport-based Air Cargo Germany taken by AirBridgeCargo this year. Following the deal ACG’s fleet of four 747 freighters grew to six with the transfer of two jets from its Russian investor, according to a statement issued Sept. 11.

Gulf Orders

Fresh opportunities are likely to become harder to find as IATA’s projection of 5.3 percent compound annual growth in travel encourages carriers to extend record aircraft orders.

Though spurred by passenger demand, models such as Airbus SAS’s (EAD) A350 and the Boeing 787, as well as older 777s and A330s, offer ample hold space that will deepen the cargo-capacity glut.
“These aircraft are cargo-friendly in terms of available belly-hold capacity per seat,” said Marco Bloemen, an aviation analyst at Seabury Group. “With the number expected, capacity augmentation will be significant for four years at least.”

Boeing’s assembly lines are churning out 777s at a record pace of 8.3 a month and are due to produce 10 787s over the same period. Airbus is likewise ramping up A330 output to 10 a month, also a record, and may go to 11 on the strength of China orders.

Dubai-based Emirates, the No. 1 operator of both the 777 and Airbus A380 superjumbo, may overtake Lufthansa as the world’s biggest cargo-carrying passenger airline next year on the strength of its passenger-plane orders alone.

Emirates will already offer 4.1 percent capacity than Lufthansa this year, excluding the latter’s Swiss unit, Andreas Otto, the German company’s head of cargo sales, said this month.

Cargolux Review

Flagging demand and a night-flight ban in Frankfurt led sales at the Lufthansa Cargo business to slump 9.7 percent in the first nine months, with operating profit tumbling 62 percent to 66 million euros ($86 million). The carrier has responded by grounding capacity equal to two of its Boeing MD-11 freighters.
Independents are also feeling the pinch. Luxembourg-based Cargolux has initiated a review that may include job cuts, and Qatar Airways Ltd. is seeking to sell a 35 percent holding following a spat with the duchy’s government over strategy.

Qatar Air, the second-biggest Gulf carrier, bought its stake only last year as part of a push to become a major freight operator by 2015. Cargolux, founded in 1970 and the first operator of Boeing’s 747-8 freighter, lost $18 million in 2011 and has been unprofitable in three of the past four years.
Even though air-cargo demand is expected to increase 1.4 percent next year, that will provide little boost to an industry that has suffered a 2 percent decline in 2012, IATA’s Tyler said. The market has lost about half a decade’s growth during the slump, with volumes back at 2007 levels, IATA figures show.

In 2013, Atlas’s Flynn sees a “slight contraction” versus 2012, with demand sluggish in the first half and improving in the second, though like IATA, he expects a strong revival in the longer term, buoyed by Asian growth. The question is whether today’s cargo specialists will be around the reap the benefits.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Wall in London at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at [email protected]; Benedikt Kammel at [email protected]

 

[B747FR8DAWG]

Atlas Air Worldwide Expands CMI Service
Will Operate Two New Customer-Owned B767s on Intra-Asian Routes

Press Release: Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. – 4 hours ago
PURCHASE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. (AAWW) announced today that its Atlas Air, Inc. unit will provide operating service on
intra-Asian routes for two new Boeing 767-300ERF aircraft owned by DHL Express beginning in the latter part of the first
quarter 2013. Atlas Air will operate the aircraft for its sister company, Polar Air Cargo Worldwide, Inc., linking the intra-
Asian flights with Polar’s existing transpacific, all-cargo services for DHL and other customers.

The new operation represents a continued expansion of Atlas Air’s asset-light CMI (Crew, Maintenance and Insurance)
service solution, which was launched in 2010. CMI is expected to be a strategic driver of company revenues and earnings
and improved business mix over the next few years and beyond.
With the addition of the new aircraft to the company’s operating certificate, Atlas Air’s fleet of B767s will increase to 10
aircraft.

 

[EuroWheenie]

Good for Atlas, not so good for DHL Air UK.

Those 2 aircraft (G-DHLJ and G-DHLK) will be transferred from the DHK to the GTI AOC, and be based in PVG to serve intra-asia routes. First line is rumoured to be PVG-HKG-SYD. That service will replace the present CVG-HNL-SYD rotation operated by CKS, which is hideously expensive. Plan is for PAC to operate the -8F into PVG, carrying the SYD load, where GTI will take over and move the material dunnunda.

Still, it's good to see those (almost) brand new 767s being put to use rather than stored in a desert somewhere. DHL Europe has no use of them; the original plan to operate them LEJ-ALA-PVG-ICN-DXB-LEJ fell through due to the Chinese refusing to grant 5th freedom on the PVG-ICN leg. Besides which, it always seemed a bit daft sending an aircraft all the way from Europe to operate a PVG-ICN service. As such, AeroLogic (BOX) will continue operating LEJ-ICN direct with the 77F.

 

[JonnyKnoxville]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-09/atlas-revenue-hit-as-economy-converges-with-troop-cuts-freight.html?cmpid=yhoo

Atlas Revenue Hit as Economy Converges With Troop Cuts: Freight

Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc. (AAWW), which did almost one-quarter of its flying for the armed forces in 2003, is seeking new customers to counter a drop in military shipments as the longest combat operation in U.S. history winds down. A weaker global economy just makes it harder.

In an air-freight industry in which available aircraft has exceeded demand for 21 of the past 22 months, Atlas has had trouble signing private customers to long-term contracts while Europe remains in a recession and Asian economies struggle.

The transportation of military equipment and soldiers, about 15 percent of all the hours Atlas spent flying in the third quarter, amounted to almost 30 percent of operating revenue in that period. Hours flown for the military may dwindle to about 7 percent, the Purchase, New York-based carrier said, as operations wrap up in Afghanistan.

“People need to be cognizant of the fact that the military drawdown will have a negative effect on Atlas’s earnings at the same time the company is challenged by overall soft economic conditions,” said Jack Atkins, an analyst at Stephens Inc., who downgraded the company to a hold in November. “All those things together made us say: ‘Let’s just pump the brakes.’”

Two Atlas competitors had trouble staying afloat amid the dwindling of the Afghanistan war. Norwalk, Connecticut-based Southern Air Holdings Inc. blamed its September bankruptcy filing on the drawdown and shrinking defense budgets. Privately owned Global Aviation Holdings Inc., which provides the largest share of civil-reserve service, is emerging from bankruptcy reorganization.

More Crews

Atlas will offset fewer military charters by attracting private business to its fleet of modern, more fuel-efficient Boeing Co. 747-8s, which are replacing aging 747-400s, and by providing more flight crews, Dan Loh, director of investor relations, said in a phone interview.

Together with aircraft maintenance and insurance, those services make up more than 70 percent of Atlas’s business, as measured in block hours, or the time aircraft spend traveling.

Other companies involved in military transportation have also tried to reposition their revenue streams as the war effort lessens. Miami-based World Fuel Services Corp. (INT), which brokers aviation fuel in Afghanistan, bought Denmark’s Nordic Camp Supply ApS in 2011 to capitalize on that company’s relationship with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Atlas receives military charters as a member of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, which aids the Department of Defense when its demand exceeds capacity. Atlas’s contract entitles it to about one-third of all military requests. Carriers including United Continental Holdings Inc. and FedEx Corp. (FDX) also work for the armed forces.

In fiscal year 2012, commercial aircraft flew 85 percent of troops and 37 percent of cargo around the globe for the military, according to U.S. Transportation Command figures.

Earnings Guidance

Weak private demand has prevailed so far, leading Atlas to trim earnings guidance. Industry-wide global air freight volumes fell 2 percent in the first 10 months of 2012 compared with the year-earlier period, according to the most recent International Air Transport Association data. Atlas secured 20 long-term aircraft contracts instead of a projected 23 by the end of 2012, and it cut estimates for total block hours flown last year to 153,000 from an earlier expectation of 160,000.

Atlas shares have slumped about 37 percent after peaking on Feb. 18, 2011. While the stock partly recovered last year, it dropped 17 percent on Nov. 1 when the company posted third- quarter profit trailing analysts’ estimates and reduced its forecasts for 2012 earnings. Shares declined further on Nov. 27 when RBC Capital Markets analyst John Barnes lowered his Atlas rating to “sector perform” from “outperform.”

Fewer Troops

Shrinking military business presents further risk. The number of troops on commercial flights fell to 1.2 million in fiscal 2012 from 1.4 million in 2009, the government figures show. Airlines hauled 176,818 tons of cargo last year, down from a peak of 243,345 tons in 2010.

At Atlas, military charter revenue dropped 4 percent in the third quarter from the same period a year before, the first decrease in more than a year. The carrier was more often booked for one-way missions that paid two-way fares during the Middle East buildups.
“Military volumes certainly have declined and will continue to decline, just absolutely,” Bill Flynn, president and chief executive officer of Atlas, said during a Nov. 14 investor conference. “Our business model is not built on military.”

The total hours Atlas will fly for the military should drop to about 18,000 this year from 23,000 in 2012, Stephens’s Atkins said. It flew almost 35,000 hours for the armed forces in 2003.

Afghanistan Drawdown

While the government has yet to announce a detailed plan for leaving Afghanistan, the number of U.S. soldiers there peaked at about 100,000 in May 2011, according to data compiled by the Brookings Institution. As of November, there were 68,000 stationed there.

Finding more military passengers elsewhere probably won’t be a viable option for Atlas either. The number of troops in foreign countries averaged about 536,000 from 1950 to 2000 and was declining throughout that period, according to a 2006 study from the Heritage Foundation. There were about 203,000 troops abroad in 2002, the year before the invasion of Iraq.

“There are going to be a heck of a lot less people deployed overseas than there are right now,” said Steven Bucci, director of foreign policy studies for the Washington-based foundation. “I’d be surprised if we had much of anything left in Europe by the end of President Obama’s term. In the Middle East, South Asia theater, you’ll definitely see a retraction from the high points that we hit in the past and where we are right now.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Kowalski in Washington at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at [email protected]

 

[atpcliff]

Atlas is hiring a lot of pilots right now, (and Cabin Crew), both for the 747 and 767. Maybe the Cabin Crew hiring is because Ryan International just went Chapter 7???
cliff
GRB

 

[DHPFLYN]

Are things slowing down at all ? I was in IAH yesterday and there were 3 747's and one 767 parked. I believe a fourth was the Houston Express flight. Just haven't noticed that many planes sitting around lately.

 

[JonnyKnoxville]

Are things slowing down at all ? I was in IAH yesterday and there were 3 747's and one 767 parked. I believe a fourth was the Houston Express flight. Just haven't noticed that many planes sitting around lately.

It seems busy. This time of year is normally our slowest. Atlas schedules the most maintenance to be done this time of year because of it.

I bid reserve on purpose in the first three months of the year just to relax and get off line. Last year, I went non-current on landings.

With that said, I am finishing my first month of reserve this year and Atlas has used me every day this month that I am eligible to work. So based on my personal experience, I would say that we are very busy for some reason.