Cargo 360 just bought Southern Air

[27 driver]

The letter I just received form SAI management is that SAI will still have control and the Neff's will still be in command. Here is a clip from the email.

Under the terms of our agreement, which we signed last week, Cargo 360 will ultimately be merged into Southern Air. The combined company will operate under the Southern Air Holdings Inc. name and will be headquartered at our existing Connecticut facilities. I will remain as CEO of the combined company, with Brian Neff, currently our CFO, promoted to President. We will also remain as significant equity owners. There will be no change as far as any of SAI’s headquarters or field personnel are concerned. With respect to our crewmembers, we are working on a merger of seniority lists based on hire date. It is my understanding that this method results in a straightforward combined list, especially since Cargo 360 currently operates at approximately the same routes and utilization as we do. As a result, no SAI crewmember status will be affected. Bottom line, the only consequence to Southern Air and all its employees is that we will be able to benefit from Oak Hill’s resources, access to capital, and commitment to aviation, resulting in a larger and stronger company. As long as we continue to work together as a team and keep our focus on operational excellence and fiscal discipline, we will always be successful.

Not sure what the terms of the merger are or how they plan on merging the groups. If I had to guess many from Cargo 360 will not like the work rules at SAI. SAI just went union (in house) and are in the process of getting that started. Lets hope it goes smoothly. I am sure there will be many that are unhappy, and I am probably one of them. I guess time will tell. Hopefully there will be no fighting among the groups.

 

[pilotbrain]

My Bet is that 35% of 360 pilot never make the jump to the SA list.. I don't know how most of the 360 guy are going to handle 40 days on the road.

 

[pilotbrain]

God Speed!!!

 

[27 driver]

My Bet is that 35% of 360 pilot never make the jump to the SA list.. I don't know how most of the 360 guy are going to handle 40 days on the road.

I would have to agree with you, Cargo 360 has a much better schedule. It is not as bad as you have heard though. I have been at SAI for about a year now and have never been out more than 23 days and that only happened once. I guess I have been lucky. The million dollar question for me is what are the hire dates of the FO's at Cargo 360. Am I lucky or am I hosed. Only time will tell.

Oh ya, I think Cargo 360 has better first year pay also.

 

[StripAlert]

Take Me To Your Leader

Hey Southern Air guys, we need to get a dialog going between the pilot groups. There is an organizational movement rapidly afoot at Cargo 360 as we speak, and it would do us all good to come together under the same roof sooner rather than later. It's a good sign that the pilot lists are being integrated in what appears to be a fair and equitable manner, as it's not going to pit one side against the other. The letter we got today says substantively the same thing as yours--if we go to Southern Air, we'll go at our current seat or better and our current pay or better, and our seniority list will be merged with yours by date of hire.

Someone from Southern, please PM me. We have a website set up already to encourage communication amongst our pilot group, and it's not going to be too hard to set up some special message boards and integrate you guys into that so we can get to know each other and come up with a plan.

I'll concur that the Cargo 360 guys are none too happy about the potential of being gone over 20 days a month. In fact, we had recently made some significant inroads towards getting that reduced to 16 days. If we can all come together and speak with a single voice, this might be a great opportunity to improve QOL at Southern for everyone's benefit.

 

[johnsonrod]

Hey Southern Air guys, we need to get a dialog going between the pilot groups. There is an organizational movement rapidly afoot at Cargo 360 as we speak, and it would do us all good to come together under the same roof sooner rather than later. It's a good sign that the pilot lists are being integrated in what appears to be a fair and equitable manner, as it's not going to pit one side against the other. The letter we got today says substantively the same thing as yours--if we go to Southern Air, we'll go at our current seat or better and our current pay or better, and our seniority list will be merged with yours by date of hire.

Someone from Southern, please PM me. We have a website set up already to encourage communication amongst our pilot group, and it's not going to be too hard to set up some special message boards and integrate you guys into that so we can get to know each other and come up with a plan.

I'll concur that the Cargo 360 guys are none too happy about the potential of being gone over 20 days a month. In fact, we had recently made some significant inroads towards getting that reduced to 16 days. If we can all come together and speak with a single voice, this might be a great opportunity to improve QOL at Southern for everyone's benefit.

Good luck guys. Sounds like you are getting organized quickly - that is pretty impressive.

 

[unwashed]

Yes we are, SAI pilot group should consider the same. This merging of two different operating certificates is not easy. Cargo360 was certified under ATOS (SIC) which is tougher all around compared to when SAI was certified. And it is interested how Neff said "majority equity holder" when Oakhill said Neff would be a minority holder. Who is correct? Feel free to PM me on the details of our orginizing.

 

[StripAlert]

And it is interested how Neff said "majority equity holder" when Oakhill said Neff would be a minority holder. Who is correct?

Actually, unless I'm missing something, it looks like Neff said "significant equity owners" which appears carefully-crafted, but doesn't necessarily (and probably doesn't) mean majority.

 

[ironspud]

Hey Southern Air guys, we need to get a dialog going between the pilot groups. There is an organizational movement rapidly afoot at Cargo 360 as we speak, and it would do us all good to come together under the same roof sooner rather than later. It's a good sign that the pilot lists are being integrated in what appears to be a fair and equitable manner, as it's not going to pit one side against the other. The letter we got today says substantively the same thing as yours--if we go to Southern Air, we'll go at our current seat or better and our current pay or better, and our seniority list will be merged with yours by date of hire.

Someone from Southern, please PM me. We have a website set up already to encourage communication amongst our pilot group, and it's not going to be too hard to set up some special message boards and integrate you guys into that so we can get to know each other and come up with a plan.

I'll concur that the Cargo 360 guys are none too happy about the potential of being gone over 20 days a month. In fact, we had recently made some significant inroads towards getting that reduced to 16 days. If we can all come together and speak with a single voice, this might be a great opportunity to improve QOL at Southern for everyone's benefit.

Talk to our lawyer.

 

[C-141/C-5]

Neff holds 15% Oak 85%. Pilot groups need to come together and bring SA's scale to Cargo360's first year pay scale and hopefully adopt their management's culture of making a pilot an asset rather than a liability. Cargo360's quality of life is excellent due to excellent scheduling and trust in top notch mangement. If Oak Hill has any sense they will bring these leaders to SA (Cargo360 management) to make this transition seamless and profitable.