Anyone at NWA with more info...?

[Flyforyou]

Northwest Calls Off Hundreds of Flights

By Ted Reed
TheStreet.com Staff Reporter
6/25/2007 3:18 PM EDT

Northwest (NWA - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) has cancelled more than 500 flights over the past four days, apparently because of crew shortages.

The cancellations could be a precursor to problems that will plague travelers throughout the summer if airline pilots -- frustrated by reduced compensation and increased work hours -- are unwilling or unable to volunteer to fly beyond their normal scheduled hours.

According to FlightStats.com, Northwest called off 453 flights from Friday through Sunday. More than 125 additional flights were taken off the schedule by midday Monday. Minnesota-based Northwest operates about 1,400 daily departures.

"This staffing problem is something we have pointed out for a long time," said Wade Blaufuss, spokesman for the Northwest chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association. "The company wants to operate the airline at the red line. It looks great on paper, but intangibles like fatigue and morale and stress don't show up on a balance sheet."

A Northwest spokesman declined to immediately comment. The carrier is just weeks removed from its emergence from bankruptcy protection.

Federal regulations limit pilots to flying 1,000 hours a year and 100 hours a month. Normally, airlines fly heavier schedules in the summer, when travel surges, and rely at times on volunteers to enable them to operate a full schedule.

"It looks like Northwest got the short straw," said Meara McLaughlin, spokeswoman for FlightStats, which compiles flight statistics for various travel businesses. "At this point, the system is so tightly wound that if you just have reduced staffing or bad weather or airport congestion or a VIP flying through, you [quickly] get to the breaking point."

Andy Wisbacher, spokesman for the Northwest chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants, said he has had three A320 flights cancelled in the past two weeks due to a shortage of pilot crews.

"I can only imagine that Northwest knew about this going into the summer and didn't plan properly," he said. "I expect it will go on through the summer."

 

[Clacker]

Looks like old Doug Steenland should cash in some of his $26.6 mil worth of stock before it's worthless again...
This is like watching a slow-motion car wreck. It seems that everyone knew about the staffing problem for months, but management refused to pull their collective heads out of the sand. It pains me to see what the NW EMT has done with this company. What a bunch of assclowns...
(end rant)

 

[PeanuckleCRJ]

Piss poor planning equals piss poor performance.

They have known they were going to be short for months and months...

 

[DarinFred]

I had both my outbound and return flights on NW cancelled on a recent trip out to Colorado. Thank god Continental was there to take up the slack. I will never fly NW again. I guess they won't have manning issues if they lose enough customers!

 

[vtwo]

2 flights from SAT to Dtw and SAT to Mem. canceled on Sunday the 24th.
The agent said it was company operational needs. IE No crews.

 

[COpilot]

The sad thing you will see in some media sites, is how the pilots refuse to work overtime, it's their fault... Then some mangt. type will get a bonus for planting the "spin".

 

[NWA Furloughee]

So far today (2155 EDT), acording to flightstats.com, the count is up to 171 cancelled flights. That is 12% of the daily flight schedule. Which begs the question, is the NWA EMT really that inept or are they just sucking it up for the summer because they know that the narrow body fleet drawdown begins in earnest this fall?

 

[cessnapilot]

repeat...

 

[cessnapilot]

I had both my outbound and return flights on NW cancelled on a recent trip out to Colorado. Thank god Continental was there to take up the slack. I will never fly NW again. I guess they won't have manning issues if they lose enough customers!

You won't fly nwa again... yeah right... you sound like a passenger.

 

[luckytohaveajob]

NWA pilots will say the fleet draw down has already been announced and it is nothing to worry about. NWA pilots believing management! NWA pilots are idiots.

I would say they are doing just what has been speculated, drawing down the staffing in advance of the DC9 parking.

Mesaba just got the CRJ900. What better replacement. A 90 seater that pays less than $50k to the captains and $25k to the FO's.

 

[whaleroast]

The 900 seats 76.

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

Mesaba CRJ-900 captains make a base pay of between at least $60K and up to $85K ($60K is for a 5th year pilot-I think the most junior capt is at 8? years now). The actual lowest base capt pay is $____, which would be the lowest seniority guy on the -900, which I'm guessing is pretty senior. Some Mesaba guy could actually tell us the minimum.

The -900 is designed to seat 90, but the NWA ones have 2 classes of service and are restricted by the NWA pilot's contract to less seats.

cliff
YIP

 

[Blade Runner]

[
Mesaba just got the CRJ900. What better replacement. A 90 seater that pays less than $50k to the captains and $25k to the FO's.[/quote]

< $50K/year ??? I'm a Junior pup going on 14 years of service and will make $87.37/hr counting the 5.5% pay cut and no snap back factored in. Suffices to say the far more senior people will top out around $100/hr. Are we proud of this compensation package? By no means. Right now I'm pulling in $60/hr just flying the Saab!!! So I don't know where you got the less than $50K figure.

 

[SEVEN]

NWA pilots will say the fleet draw down has already been announced and it is nothing to worry about. NWA pilots believing management! NWA pilots are idiots.

I would say they are doing just what has been speculated, drawing down the staffing in advance of the DC9 parking.

Mesaba just got the CRJ900. What better replacement. A 90 seater that pays less than $50k to the captains and $25k to the FO's.

http://airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/regional/mesaba.html

As you can see, a current Mesaba pilot who can hold the CRJ900 will make a minimum of $75,000 for sitting reserve. But most guys will make close to six figures if they want. I think you got our payrates confused with MESA. The current Mesaba pilots who can hold the CRJ900 as captain are at 10-15 year payrates.

 

[luckytohaveajob]

The Mesaba pay whether at $50k or $75k is low compared to the $140k the DC9 pilot recently received flying the same size aircraft.

A CRJ900 career is nothing compared to the DC9 career the CRJ replaced.

Plus, the DC9 are going to be eliminated sooner than anyone thinks and the current short staffing at NWA is clear foreshadowing of such an event.

Split hairs all you want about the small details, the big picture is clear.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

Have you looked at NWA DC9 rates lately? They are nothing to be overly proud of and hopefully Mesaba has a better retirement than the NWA 5% contribution. Are you blaming the Mesaba pilots for something the NWA pilots created?

 

[shortbus driver]

I feel for the NWA guys...stick with it, it may screw up my commute but at least someone is taking a stand

 

[Dirty Sanchez]

http://airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/regional/mesaba.html

As you can see, a current Mesaba pilot who can hold the CRJ900 will make a minimum of $75,000 for sitting reserve. But most guys will make close to six figures if they want. I think you got our payrates confused with MESA. The current Mesaba pilots who can hold the CRJ900 as captain are at 10-15 year payrates.

Are you trying to say it's a good thing that a captain will be making $100K for an aircraft that should be flown by a mainline pilot at 50% more than that?

And regardless of what you say, first year 900 pay is $60. That is miserable. If the "most junior guy" will be making $75K then XJ should have made that year 1 pay. Otherwise STFU.

 

[XJohXJ]

1) The CRJ900 is NOT the same size as a DC-9. It is significantly smaller.
2) The CRJ900's placement is NOT under the control of the Mesaba pilots, or anyone at Mesaba, for that matter. We're just flying the airplanes assigned to us. If you want to talk to the people who placed those planes with us, talk to NWA mainline.

 

[SEVEN]

Are you trying to say it's a good thing that a captain will be making $100K for an aircraft that should be flown by a mainline pilot at 50% more than that?

And regardless of what you say, first year 900 pay is $60. That is miserable. If the "most junior guy" will be making $75K then XJ should have made that year 1 pay. Otherwise STFU.

That aircraft is a REGIONAL JET with 76 seats not 120 seats. It should be operated by REGIONAL PILOTS at a REGIONAL AIRLINE. If mainline wants to fly them, let them. They chose NOT to.

 

[hawaiimei]

I smell CHAOS operations ..... this isn;t poor planning - it is great planning by and camaraderie of the unions for the pilots and flight attendants.

Random crews, random days, random flights.... way to go guys! Can't strike huh, well you cant stop em from quitting all at once.

 

[hawaiimei]

I smell CHAOS operations ..... this isn;t poor planning - it is great planning by and camaraderie of the unions for the pilots and flight attendants.

Random crews, random days, random flights.... way to go guys! Can't strike huh, well you cant stop em from quitting all at once.

 

[Clacker]

I smell CHAOS operations ..... this isn;t poor planning - it is great planning by and camaraderie of the unions for the pilots and flight attendants.

Random crews, random days, random flights.... way to go guys! Can't strike huh, well you cant stop em from quitting all at once.

I smell half-witted conspiracy theory... It is poor planning, and it is entirely due to bad decisions by management. The pilot and flight attendant unions couldn't plan a picnic together for Pete's sake.

 

[filejw]

The deal is nobody has to do anything to screw up the works. Most pilots are sch to 90 hrs then throw in some WX and ATC delays days and or legs and bingo you are pushing 100 hrs.That plus understaffed as usual = no reserves and a slight increase in sick calls because some folks are just exhausted . No big conspiracy plus we just got back a bunch of work rules from pre BK just to make us happy. Just poor planning from the head shed.Theses guys ran the company into BK what made anybody think they were bright enough to run it out of BK????

 

[NuGuy]

The deal is nobody has to do anything to screw up the works. Most pilots are sch to 90 hrs then throw in some WX and ATC delays days and or legs and bingo you are pushing 100 hrs.That plus understaffed as usual = no reserves and a slight increase in sick calls because some folks are just exhausted . No big conspiracy plus we just got back a bunch of work rules from pre BK just to make us happy. Just poor planning from the head shed.Theses guys ran the company into BK what made anybody think they were bright enough to run it out of BK????

Heyas,

File is right. Nobody has done anything except fly their lines, and the guys who pick up time still pick up time.

Problem is, with an 88 hour line, there isn't much wiggle room.

The other curiosity that no one is talking about is the rampant attrition. That's right, attrition. NWA has guys, senior, mid AND junior punching out left and right.

9-15 year guys leaving for UPS, FDX, CAL you name it. Some are quitting in the middle of their trips, and a "two week notice" is nothing but a fantasy for HR.

A few old timers are leaving for greener pastures, but most are holding tight for the age 65 thing. Some of the old time redbook guys, who've never REALLY suffered anything are still crusing along thinking all is right with the world saying crap like "we got guys on furlough? Really?". Weird dudes....honestly

Nu

 

[xjhawk]

obviously this guy uses his mouth before his brain

NWA pilots will say the fleet draw down has already been announced and it is nothing to worry about. NWA pilots believing management! NWA pilots are idiots.

I would say they are doing just what has been speculated, drawing down the staffing in advance of the DC9 parking.

Mesaba just got the CRJ900. What better replacement. A 90 seater that pays less than $50k to the captains and $25k to the FO's.

as someone has pointed out earlier, the 900 has 76 seats, and to edumacate this idiot, our 10 year saab guys make 70k and yes our FO's start at under 25 but many make above or around 30k

 

[PCL_128]

1) The CRJ900 is NOT the same size as a DC-9. It is significantly smaller.

I'm not sure when you got to XJ, but for the first couple of years that I worked at Pinnacle, NWA still had some old DC-9-10s. NWA had their -10s configured for 78 seats. In other words, same size airplane. A large CRJ is no different than a small DC-9.

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

I know an NWA guy who called in today and offered to fly. They said they didn't need him.

One of our 2nd year FOs (on a Falcon 20) made $7K last year.

In one month.

cliff
YIP

 

[redflyer65]

This is the same management team that lead Northwest to bankruptcy, then rewarded themselves with bonuses for a job well done.

I'm really not that suprised that they are having a hard time running things now. Not really sure if they could run a Waffle House, much less an airline.

 

[Diesel-9]

ATC called out traffic to us yesterday, a CRJ-900 at FL300. My response was, "We have the Heavy RJ in sight! " I propose the CRJ-900 and EM-175/195 be branded with the 'HEAVY RJ' callsign.