Big Sky in Big Trouble?

[The5th]

I've heard you're wayyy short og pilots and way behind in training of new ones. Flights cancelled every day and all this just months after a furlough of 20-30 pilots. True?

I've also heard there may be a mass exodus of pilots to some other regional?

And a recent firing of the airline president? A chief pilot who just quit, a DO who got fired a couple of months back and a some other management person just got canned? Whats up with all this?

Info please.

 

[sf3boy]

Don't forget that they lose the Mesaba Holdings shareholders a million bones a quarter.

 

[surplus1]

Don't forget that they lose the Mesaba Holdings shareholders a million bones a quarter.

Maybe that's the price the Mesaba shareholders should pay, for allowing their managers to attempt to shaft the Mesaba pilots?

Wasn't that why this bought this airline in the first place? Sometimes you get what you ask for.

 

[Paul R. Smith]

Maybe that's the price the Mesaba shareholders should pay, for allowing their managers to attempt to shaft the Mesaba pilots?

Wasn't that why this bought this airline in the first place? Sometimes you get what you ask for.

Farkin A, my man!!!

But I know nothing of Big Sky air so talk amongst yourselves, but I like the way you think surplus.

 

[JohnDoe]

quote:
"Maybe that's the price the Mesaba shareholders should pay, for allowing their managers to attempt to shaft the Mesaba pilots?

Wasn't that why this bought this airline in the first place? Sometimes you get what you ask for."


Gotta give you an A+ on that one......

 

[flap operator]

Well, at least there are a few people (most employees at XJ and people on this thread) that realize that Big Sky was a mistake. I love how in this las quarters earnings they didn't really breakdown how much each subsuduary made/lost. MAIR made $2.9 million which was down from the previous quarter. Then they make it out to be like XJ is in dire financial straits and they're beating the same drum AA, UA, US, NW and CO are beating. Uh... right. I think the best one is how they spin the parking of avros and other NWA decisions forced upon Mesaba. It makes me so mad that they never admit that NWA is the cause for everything Mesaba is dealing with. THEY shrunk us... THEY stopped our growth... THEY devalued our stock to what it is today... THEY make the decisions that drive earnings.. IT'S SO BLURRY TO OUTSIDERS IT SICKENING!!! I wish Wallstreet really knew WTF was going on here. Why aren't the shareholders mad when their stock once at $38 is now at $9 if we're lucky?

Point being... Big Sky was a mistake, is a mistake and will be a mistake unless Foley and his cronies at MAIR can grow a sack and grow that company. UNtil then, they'll use Big Sky to continue to make Aviation look like a feeble struggling company.


FO

 

[FN FAL]

Big Sky Airlines' top exec resigns

By JAN FALSTAD
Of The Gazette Staff


Big Sky Airlines Co. said Wednesday its top executive has resigned to ?pursue personal interests.?


President and Chief Executive Kim Champney moved to Billings in January 1998 from San Antonio, Texas, to manage Big Sky Airlines.


?I had a contract and the contract expired in July,? Champney said.


Big Sky Airlines, based in Billings, employs 136 people locally out of a total of 190 employees.


In December 2002, MAIR Holdings, Inc., an affiliate of Northwest Airlines of Minneapolis, bought Big Sky and changed it from a publicly traded to privately held company.


Lynette Goodman, manager of marketing programs and services in Billings, said Champney's job will be filled.


In the meantime, Chief Financial Officer Fred deLeeuw will assume all the administrative and marketing functions.


She also said the number-two man will keep his current position.


?Craig Denny, who is our chief operating officer and executive vice president, will continue to manage all the operations,? Goodman said.


Big Sky's board chairman Jon Marchi of Polson said, ?We want to wish Kim the best in the future and thank him for his six years of hard work and dedicated service to Big Sky.?


The regional carrier flies 427 flights each month - an average of 69 per day - to 19 cities in Montana, North Dakota, Idaho and Washington state.


MAIR Holdings took over the former Mesaba Holdings, which started airline service 60 years ago in northern Minnesota. MAIR is publicly traded and was selling for $8.25 per share at mid-day. After three positive quarters in a row, MAIR reported an operating loss of nearly $7.4 million for the first quarter of this year.


The airline has been trimming staff by not filling positions when people leave. However, the airline is hiring in one area.


?We are doing pilot recruitment right now and they are doing some new hires and classes with pilots,? Goodman said.


Champney, who has worked in the airline business for 23 years, said he will take some time to vacation.


?My family and I really love Billings and Montana and we'd sure love to stay here,? Champney said. ?We'll probably take some time off and visit some family and then look for another job.?

 

[The5th]

I heard from a friend who heard from a friend who...

BSA suffers from some serious head butting between their union leadership and mgmnt?