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- Dec 9, 2001
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Pilot Furlough Displacement & Leave Notice Memo
OPS 03-078
July 9, 2003
Due to recent labor developments the Company has lost financing commitments for current aircraft deliveries. This event was not contemplated as we implemented our staff and training requirements. Since it is highly unlikely that we will be able to find alternatives in the near term, the Company now finds itself with a substantial number of excess crew members. Accordingly, and with regret, we will have to make adjustments to target staffing levels resulting in furloughs as soon as July 31, 2003.
Here is the expected breakdown of Furloughs and Displacements:
Furloughs effective July 31, 2003 – 26
Furloughs effective August 31, 2003 – 36
Total Furloughs- 62
Total Displacements:
Capt breakdown:
19 Downgrades to First Officer
6 145 Captain Positions to 135/140 Captain Positions
6 Base Moves
The expected Base changes are:
4 from IND, 4 from LGA and 4 from PHL
2 to BUF, 4 to GSO and 6 to MCO
First Officer breakdown:
A minimum of 12 base moves and a further undetermined number of moves due to Captain downgrades.
In accordance with Paragraph G of Article 11 – Reduction in Force of the collective bargaining agreement between the Company and your union the company is soliciting requests for Unpaid Leaves of Absence by the Pilot Group.
Leaves will be granted to those Pilots who’s leave would prevent the Furlough or Involuntary Displacement of another Pilot.
Please feel free to contact Kathy Wooldridge at 317-484-6003 or Lisa Cody 317-484-6002 with any questions you might have concerning your benefits.
Sincerely,
Bart Wooldridge
Chief Pilot
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Company Update for July 10, 2003
Good Afternoon. It’s been another week of big announcements in the regional sector. As you will read below, Mesa continues to chalk up impressive new deals with UAL and US Airways and now Trans States is getting in with a new agreement with UAL. Now that the news is out, I can share with you that we were within days of signing an MOU with UAL for this very aircraft order when the news of the strike vote was announced. That was enough to kill UAL’s enthusiasm for completing the agreement with Chautauqua. After having spent nearly a year on this deal, to lose it to Trans States over something as “ill-considered” as the strike vote is a bitter pill to swallow. The addition of 25 RJ’s in ORD and IAD would have been a very positive development for our airline as it was a perfect fit within our geographic operating area. The addition of 25 more RJ’s would have created 200 new pilot positions [100 captain upgrades], 100 new FA’s, 50 new Technician positions and 25 support staff positions, for a total of 375 new jobs. Of course adding another major partner would have given us the type of diversity we like; replacing the loss of AWA in our system, not to mention the other benefits of doing business with the largest carrier flying the Pacific. Clearly this was a huge loss to Chautauqua and a huge win for Trans States. These types of opportunities simply don’t come around every day or every year for that matter. This means a permanent loss of new jobs and upgrades for our people; besides the fact that handing TSA a gift of this nature will only make them a more difficult competitor down the road. It’s a bad outcome for Chautauqua both in the short and long term.
The airline also finds itself in an unanticipated staff overage due to the unexpected loss of financing on the next 3 US Airways RJ’s. Unfortunately we will be furloughing about 60 pilots over the next 2 months. Of course 3 aircraft does not equal 60 pilots, but we had been building our staff in anticipation of getting more flying. We now know that no longer looks like a realistic possibility. If we can find replacement financing or find used aircraft as an alternative, we hope to position the airline to bring many of these furloughed employees back in October or November. However, it is highly unlikely we will be able to accomplish this as long as our labor situation remains unresolved. The loss of aircraft financing and the loss of new business were predictable repercussions of the strike vote; these are clearly “self-inflicted” wounds.
OPS 03-078
July 9, 2003
Due to recent labor developments the Company has lost financing commitments for current aircraft deliveries. This event was not contemplated as we implemented our staff and training requirements. Since it is highly unlikely that we will be able to find alternatives in the near term, the Company now finds itself with a substantial number of excess crew members. Accordingly, and with regret, we will have to make adjustments to target staffing levels resulting in furloughs as soon as July 31, 2003.
Here is the expected breakdown of Furloughs and Displacements:
Furloughs effective July 31, 2003 – 26
Furloughs effective August 31, 2003 – 36
Total Furloughs- 62
Total Displacements:
Capt breakdown:
19 Downgrades to First Officer
6 145 Captain Positions to 135/140 Captain Positions
6 Base Moves
The expected Base changes are:
4 from IND, 4 from LGA and 4 from PHL
2 to BUF, 4 to GSO and 6 to MCO
First Officer breakdown:
A minimum of 12 base moves and a further undetermined number of moves due to Captain downgrades.
In accordance with Paragraph G of Article 11 – Reduction in Force of the collective bargaining agreement between the Company and your union the company is soliciting requests for Unpaid Leaves of Absence by the Pilot Group.
Leaves will be granted to those Pilots who’s leave would prevent the Furlough or Involuntary Displacement of another Pilot.
Please feel free to contact Kathy Wooldridge at 317-484-6003 or Lisa Cody 317-484-6002 with any questions you might have concerning your benefits.
Sincerely,
Bart Wooldridge
Chief Pilot
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Company Update for July 10, 2003
Good Afternoon. It’s been another week of big announcements in the regional sector. As you will read below, Mesa continues to chalk up impressive new deals with UAL and US Airways and now Trans States is getting in with a new agreement with UAL. Now that the news is out, I can share with you that we were within days of signing an MOU with UAL for this very aircraft order when the news of the strike vote was announced. That was enough to kill UAL’s enthusiasm for completing the agreement with Chautauqua. After having spent nearly a year on this deal, to lose it to Trans States over something as “ill-considered” as the strike vote is a bitter pill to swallow. The addition of 25 RJ’s in ORD and IAD would have been a very positive development for our airline as it was a perfect fit within our geographic operating area. The addition of 25 more RJ’s would have created 200 new pilot positions [100 captain upgrades], 100 new FA’s, 50 new Technician positions and 25 support staff positions, for a total of 375 new jobs. Of course adding another major partner would have given us the type of diversity we like; replacing the loss of AWA in our system, not to mention the other benefits of doing business with the largest carrier flying the Pacific. Clearly this was a huge loss to Chautauqua and a huge win for Trans States. These types of opportunities simply don’t come around every day or every year for that matter. This means a permanent loss of new jobs and upgrades for our people; besides the fact that handing TSA a gift of this nature will only make them a more difficult competitor down the road. It’s a bad outcome for Chautauqua both in the short and long term.
The airline also finds itself in an unanticipated staff overage due to the unexpected loss of financing on the next 3 US Airways RJ’s. Unfortunately we will be furloughing about 60 pilots over the next 2 months. Of course 3 aircraft does not equal 60 pilots, but we had been building our staff in anticipation of getting more flying. We now know that no longer looks like a realistic possibility. If we can find replacement financing or find used aircraft as an alternative, we hope to position the airline to bring many of these furloughed employees back in October or November. However, it is highly unlikely we will be able to accomplish this as long as our labor situation remains unresolved. The loss of aircraft financing and the loss of new business were predictable repercussions of the strike vote; these are clearly “self-inflicted” wounds.
