ASA Connection.....(Or should I say "Concession?")

[crj567]

What if those Delta Connection 50 seat airplanes have a home with another Legacy Carrier? We are gaining ground here, so much information is not privy to us at the frontlines. BH all but said at the town hall meetings we have homes for all the 50 seats we are "loosing" (had to do that to keep FI real). Perhaps there is more out there we are not aware of. In the SkyW Inc. 4th Qtr. earning report, Brad Rich, CFO said they had found homes for 7 of our 20 and were very optomistic about finding homes for the other 13. Additionally, what if they found homes for another 25-30, all the while getting 19-20 90 seat aircraft? I'm very impressed that at the town hall meetings, pay cuts or any other type of concession wasn't even talked about. Not even casually.

Trojan

Now that is what I'm hoping for!

All my "venom" and nastiness has a central point-DAL is gone, at least the old version of the company. The NWA scum mgmt. that totally runs things now is completely different from what we used to deal with.

I would love to see SKYW get as many planes out from under the thumb of these bastards as possible. Our outstations are a good example of the way they play the game-a lot of very good people used to work at many of these outstations and the are gone without so much as a "don't let the door hit you in the ass." (some of these guys had worked for AS for 25 yrs or so.) DAL is not the same place-people will take a while to integrate just how freaking adversarial and nasty they have become, but with people like Steenland and RA running things, everyone at the company and every contractor for DAL is in for some serious unpleasantness.

SKYW signed that contract with a very different company-they probably made some assumptions which are no longer valid, and the new DAL is not gonna be the kind of place any quality feed airline will wish to do business with.

 

[79%N1]

What if those Delta Connection 50 seat airplanes have a home with another Legacy Carrier? We are gaining ground here, so much information is not privy to us at the frontlines. BH all but said at the town hall meetings we have homes for all the 50 seats we are "loosing" (had to do that to keep FI real). Perhaps there is more out there we are not aware of. In the SkyW Inc. 4th Qtr. earning report, Brad Rich, CFO said they had found homes for 7 of our 20 and were very optomistic about finding homes for the other 13. Additionally, what if they found homes for another 25-30, all the while getting 19-20 90 seat aircraft? I'm very impressed that at the town hall meetings, pay cuts or any other type of concession wasn't even talked about. Not even casually.

Trojan

Troj.........

I'm all for that, man. I'm hoping for that best case scenario just like the rest of us. But, what Legacy is looking to add 50 seat RJ's to their fleets? It seems everyone is trying to reduce these types from their fleets. But, we'll see.

As far as the earnings reports, when they said they found homes (which they later said fell through) for 7 200's, my understanding was that by homes, they meant someone agreed to buy them from SKYW, not that they would be operated and flown by ASA crews. SH also said in a recent RGT class that a potential deal to fly 10+ for United in IAD is dead, also.

Not trying to be a downer, and I'm hoping they pull something off. I'm just saying another 2 for 1 swap would be devastating for ASA crews, since we haven't even lost the first 20 yet. (Therefor not adjusting our staffing needs yet).

 

[seniorgolfer]

Truth hurts.

The days of guaranteed profit are over, which is what allowed your compensation to come up in the first place. It's happening. Bet on it.

OR

just :bawling: :bawling: :bawling:

Cost plus margin plus incentive--incentive is not guaranteed, and is based on performance metrics. Most costs are pass thru (they have to be since Delta gets the revenue from seat sales, etc.), and there must be a built in "margin", or the contract carrier model would not be viable.

Delta is using the "portfolio" to squeeze contract rates, but the aircrew pay scales are pretty comparible for the DCI carriers--biggest difference is the seniority of some of the pilot groups. To gain perspective, lets say annual pilot payroll for a carrier like ASA is 120M. Even a 10% across the board cut is 12M annually. Delta posted a 760M loss in 1Q 09...

I'd be more concerned about Mother Delta staying in business--unless she makes a "profit", all our gooses are cooked (mainline and DCI).

 

[crj567]

Cost plus margin plus incentive--incentive is not guaranteed, and is based on performance metrics. Most costs are pass thru (they have to be since Delta gets the revenue from seat sales, etc.), and there must be a built in "margin", or the contract carrier model would not be viable.

Delta is using the "portfolio" to squeeze contract rates, but the aircrew pay scales are pretty comparible for the DCI carriers--biggest difference is the seniority of some of the pilot groups. To gain perspective, lets say annual pilot payroll for a carrier like ASA is 120M. Even a 10% across the board cut is 12M annually. Delta posted a 760M loss in 1Q 09...

I'd be more concerned about Mother Delta staying in business--unless she makes a "profit", all our gooses are cooked (mainline and DCI).

-I have been singing that song for a while, and all I get is "what part of the interview did you fail." And stuff like "you better not bite the hand that feeds you."

-It is clear DAL is making stupid decisions, and that better change-for everyone's sakes.

 

[1080P]

In regard to the 50's they have mentioned in RGT that if we can't find another home for them then we might do our own flying with them and and sell DAL the seats like we used to do. That's the last straw but as SH said even if we can break even it's better than money going out the door to the bank.

 

[ifrcfi]

ASA just took delivery of one 900 from 9E. This pain will go around and around, not just at EV.

Trojan

I'm not sure you are correct on this. 9E paid for or fronted the money for the leases on the 900's they operate for Delta. ie they own the airframes. You can check on line or go look at the registration. That contract was not done the traditonal Delta purchase with a lease back to whatever DCI carrier. Maybe you meant a different regional carrier?

 

[79%N1]

The ones from PQ were 900's they were temporarily operating from Freedom. They then are jumping to ASA.

 

[Speedtape]

I'd be more concerned about Mother Delta staying in business--unless she makes a "profit", all our gooses are cooked (mainline and DCI).

For the 1st quarter, Delta reported a rather large loss. However, to get a true perspective, one has to look closer at the computations of that loss.

There were two large charges that occurred against earnings that should be non-reoccurring. The largest charge was for bad fuel hedging contracts that were negotiated shortly before the bubble burst. The other large charge was for associated merger costs.

Put those two charges aside, and Delta had a rather small loss. Delta is still projected to make a profit for the year, given that there are no other National emergencies that happen. In fact, they probably will make the largest profit of any airline.

Having said that, the squeezing on the DCI carriers will not stop. The whole idea in having multiple vendors was to force competition. Delta will squeeze until each vendor is bidding at the same costs, so they have the lowest costs possible--standard across the platform. Some of their vendors will not survive longterm. Skywest, INC., will be one of the last ones standing, because of their contracts, and their large cash reserves.

Skywest is in the cost saving mode to insure their competive position remains. They have trimmed costs in most departments. Although there have been some minor campaigns for costs savings in Flight Operations, there is more to be gained.

According to two Reps and 2 of our Negotiators, PBS is their number one goal. It was something that they did not gain in negotiations that apparently was on the table until the end. PBS was only introduced in negotiations after they purchased us in late 2005 and after the Scheduling section was complete in early 2006. However, it was introduced too late in the game to be "forced" on the agenda by the mediator.

PBS, despite the claims of the D.O., is a tremendous cost savings tool for them and a valuable staffing tool. Essentially, by avoiding conflicts, PBS creates more availabilty for each pilot throughout the month, so collectively across the entire pilot group, creates a tremendous amount of availability. By achieving increased availability, it makes their staffing more "elastic" in meeting the demand of changing staffing requirements dictated by month to month changes by D. Marketing, and more importantly, meeting the increased staffing demands in the high peak, 4 month summer travel season.

When the economy turns around, and should future growth come along that more "permanently" increases our block hours, PBS utilizes that "elasticity" to "stretch" staffing to efficient levels and minimize the need to increase staffing (hiring).

In any given month, PBS can uniformly control the distribution of block hours to each pilot during bidding by setting hour "limits" that each pilot can/or must bid so that the flying is distributed as equally as possible, therefore allowing for more precise Reserve planning to utilize the Reserves and meet only the specific needs of running the airline. This element alone can allow them to keep payroll down. It would mirror what has been experienced over the last several months that some call the "socializing" of lines. In addition, PBS can allow for awarding of more "hard lines," thereby greatly reducing or eliminating "open time" in any month, but especially in months where D. decreases our block hours.

With PBS better managing the distribution of flying to all pilots, it will reduce the payroll costs by insuring that all pilots are utilized efficiently and evenly, including Reserves. By consistently enhancing the better utilization of reserves (flying more and to some targeted goal), PBS creates cost savings by keeping payroll down. This is in contrast to the past, where reserves may have been overstaffed (not often) and underutilized (often). While Reserves were still being paid guarantee, and "line pilots" were paid "extra" money to fly block hours that Reserve pilots could have flown for free since they are already paid guarantee.

Our current system of line bidding, fosters the concept of conflicts. Conflicts create reduced pilot availabity and thus increases inefficiencies. However, line bidding affords benefits to pilots by "gaming" the system and allowing pilots to create "conflicts" that can create more days off during integration, known non-flying assignments and known absences (check rides, RGT, absences, other days off, and most importantly vacation footprints.)

In summary, PBS, is a very efficient staffing tool, and will save alot of money. From a pilot perspective, without proper control and safeguards, it can be a weapon of mass destruction to some of the benefits that we derive from line bidding, today. PBS is concessionary for pilots. However, to some degree that can be minimized if oversight and proper controls are gained in development of the system and selection of the PBS system. Having stated that, there are still some benefits to the pilot group over line bidding.

 

[ifrcfi]

The ones from PQ were 900's they were temporarily operating from Freedom. They then are jumping to ASA.

Understood, so not the original 14 or 16 PQ was operating.

 

[701EV]

Speed, If that is how PBS truly works I would say that is the best explanation I've seen on PBS. Mgmt nor ALPA have explained that well.

Still not sure if I want PBS.

Are you sure your a pilot? (TIC)


701EV