ASTAR/DHL confused

[flyc46]

Thanks for the info. It's all clear as mud now Just kidding, I think I understand now. Thanks.

 

[LarryinTN]

It really isn't that confusing.

ABX Air:
Domiciles ILN, MIA
Aircraft 73 DC9s, ~18 DC8-61/63, ~28 767-200PC/SF

All fleets have some yellow DHL airplanes, and some gray "Airborne Express" airplanes. The B767 and DC9 fleets each have at least one white "ABX Air" airplane.

Astar:
Domicile CVG Moving to ILN at some point, probably this Fall.
Aircraft 727, DC8-70s (71? 73?), A300

Some airplanes are yellow DHL and some are the old maroon DHL paint schemes.

So... DC9s, 767s and DC8s with the small diameter engine, regardless of color, are ABX. 727s, A300s, and DC8s with the high-bypass engines are Astar, regardless of color.

DHL sold their interest in DHL Airways and it was renamed Astar. DHL bought Airborne Express and simultaneously spun off the airline as ABX Air. Both actions were because of the limits of forgeign ownership of US airlines and the citizenship challenges from UPS and FedEx. Both airlines are now indapendant operators with ACMI agreements to fly freight for DHL.

 

[flyc46]

Lj-abx

That explanation makes better sense, thanks. I am assuming you fly for ABX? Ever make any of those runs up to Anchorage, AK? That's one long trip in a DC-9. Is there any hiring at ABX?

 

[LarryinTN]

I used to fly ANC quite a bit but that was before they changed it to a PDX-ANC-PDX shuttle. When I flew it the trip was ILN-MSP-FSD-YEG-ANC-BIL-ILN with a 24 hour layover in FSD and a 26 hours layover in ANC. They also had a 4-day weekend in FSD once per week and two 4-day ANC weekends per week. It was a good trip.

No hiring. I think that all of the furloughees who want to come back are back. Maybe there are a few still out but I heard someone say that none of them are coming back.

Right now we're understaffed in several seats with lots of junion manning but nobody knows what's going to happen once the hubs are combined into ILN. At that point there will be a bit of overlapped that can be eliminated so unless there is additional growth at that point they probably aren't going to hire now. Of course they can't even seem to get a fleet plan from DHL for next month that they are able to stick to so they certainly don't know what's going to happen this Fall. There's also the new west coast hub flying that we believe will involved up to 8 or 9 DC9s so who knows how that will play out?