AS Record Profit...and reasons why...

[wscrj]

Alaska Air CEO Confident Of Keeping Hawaii Advantage

By Doug Cameron, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Alaska has more than a dozen marketing ties with other airlines and is seen as a logical takeover candidate for a carrier such as the American Airlines unit of AMR Corp. (AMR) looking to beef up its west coast presence.

"It's not that we are totally opposed [to a deal]," said Ayer after a speech at an industry conference in Seattle.

He said Alaska just preferred the prospects of continuing as an independent operator, mining its strong community links with the Pacific Northwest.

_________________________________________________________________

That was a subtle but significant change of tone...

 

[mach none]

$215 mill profit, and $202 of that was attributable to "non-ticketing" revenues? Generating lots of revenue without additional expense is commendable (heck, it's capitalism at its best), but hardly a validation of a well-run operation. Without the $202 m. boost, 2010-to-date would be a mediocre year and Alaska would be staring down another round of efficiency reviews.

Umm...OK. It is still a profit. What did your carrier do?

 

[QCappy]

$215 mill profit, and $202 of that was attributable to "non-ticketing" revenues? Generating lots of revenue without additional expense is commendable (heck, it's capitalism at its best), but hardly a validation of a well-run operation. Without the $202 m. boost, 2010-to-date would be a mediocre year and Alaska would be staring down another round of efficiency reviews.

That's how airlines make money these days. In case you missed that fact.

 

[Chief Pilot]

From two pretty reliable sources, Alaska is exercising its options to buy on 25 737-800's. That coupled with the 7 or so -400 they want to get rid of means a net gain of approximately 18 aircraft over the next couple of years. Also, they want all of the furloughs back yesterday, but are trying for a timeline of June '11 with hiring through the summer and fall. I truly hope this rumor pans out. With all the action in the training dept. lately, it seems as if it might be.

CP.

 

[BILL LUMBERG]

Profit? 2 words....

Delta Codeshare.....

 

[igneousy2]

From two pretty reliable sources, Alaska is exercising its options to buy on 25 737-800's. That coupled with the 7 or so -400 they want to get rid of means a net gain of approximately 18 aircraft over the next couple of years. Also, they want all of the furloughs back yesterday, but are trying for a timeline of June '11 with hiring through the summer and fall. I truly hope this rumor pans out. With all the action in the training dept. lately, it seems as if it might be.

CP.

Don't mean to be Captain bringdown...but wouldn't this be out of "character" for management. If we did place a large order for aircraft, wouldn't it make more sense to simply continue there MO of "growth" by replacing smaller aircraft with larger aircraft. I don't believe we will see a significant increase in airframes until we are flying all 800s/900s plus the freighters/combis. I also think that Horizon will take over SE with a daily freighter for cargo.


As far as everybody back by summer. We are Bringing back 36 by April. That would leave about 60 to bring back in 2 months which is 25-30 month which is more than we were able to train during the peak of hiring. Not to mention any loa/mil guys coming back.

Anyway, I hope I am wrong but these are the rumors that make the most sense to me.

 

[Baze]

I think simulator time is what's really holding up training. The company could always get some sim time from someone else, say Flight Safety, etc.

As for our own schoolhouse, the MD sim is gone. I haven't been there since January, but I heard the CRJ sim was gone too. Once those bays are occupied with -800 sims, the training department will be able to train a lot more pilots.

Any word on when we'll be getting new sims? Apparently, one of them will be an ETOPS sim!

Also, at what point are our recalled pilots going to have to go through the full training curriculum? I'm guessing it might start with the group coming back February/March?!

 

[Dash8don]

I think simulator time is what's really holding up training. The company could always get some sim time from someone else, say Flight Safety, etc.

As for our own schoolhouse, the MD sim is gone. I haven't been there since January, but I heard the CRJ sim was gone too. Once those bays are occupied with -800 sims, the training department will be able to train a lot more pilots.

Any word on when we'll be getting new sims? Apparently, one of them will be an ETOPS sim!

Also, at what point are our recalled pilots going to have to go through the full training curriculum? I'm guessing it might start with the group coming back February/March?!

Rumor from some Boeing guys is that we have reserved "dry" sim time from Boeing. As for the CRJ sim, it is gone. Just some yellow paint and bolts in the sim bay where it used to be. I don't know about the new sim. Haven't heard anything. The recalled pilots that are from the March furlough will have to have a full training cycle. The group right now is in the 7-12 month window since qualification and can do a "glorified recurrent".

 

[Baze]

Thanks for the info, D8D.

 

[Chief Pilot]

Don't mean to be Captain bringdown...but wouldn't this be out of "character" for management. If we did place a large order for aircraft, wouldn't it make more sense to simply continue there MO of "growth" by replacing smaller aircraft with larger aircraft. I don't believe we will see a significant increase in airframes until we are flying all 800s/900s plus the freighters/combis. I also think that Horizon will take over SE with a daily freighter for cargo.


As far as everybody back by summer. We are Bringing back 36 by April. That would leave about 60 to bring back in 2 months which is 25-30 month which is more than we were able to train during the peak of hiring. Not to mention any loa/mil guys coming back.

Anyway, I hope I am wrong but these are the rumors that make the most sense to me.

I agree that the June timeline is pretty ambitious, although the training department is attempting to ramp up significantly. Under the status quo it would be impossible which is why the changes are being made. I have my doubts as to whether we could have everyone back by June, but at least we're finally moving in the right direction and it's simply what I was told.

As far as converting the options to firm orders for 25 jets being out of character for management--I think it could be argued that Chicago was out of character, as was the East Coast. Hawaii was definately out of character. Sometimes management does things that are "out of character" and it pays off big time. With all of our success in Hawaii, I don't see this as unbelievable. Just my opinion of course..

CP.