DHL pulls the plug on Astar's.....

[ABXbooger]

Mr. Pension (rhoid, upser), you sure are an angry soul...

Who's JD...John Deere? Green and yellow are cool. He invented the steel plowshare right? I grew up driving JD's, they always looked good.There are a lot of JD's around ILN.

No, I get it you mean Jack Daniels...(I do know him...neat)
or is it JD Salinger...(he was angry too)
or is it John Denver...(oh, he's gone, huh?)
or is it John Dinsmore...
or is it John Dillinger...(him too, shoulda never went to that movie...)
or is it Javier Dillatante'...

 

[EuroWheenie]

Guys,

I'm working with DHL in Brussels. From what I've heard, Astar management were getting a little too smart for their own good. They had planned to raise the cost of the JFK-BRU-BAH-BRU-JFK route which operated 3 times weekly. As extra capacity was needed, DHL persuaded Kalitta go change route from AMS-BAH to BRU-BAH and made a block space agreement. Kalitta had no problem uplifting the freight presently carried by Astar, and was thus used as a bargaining chip. Astar referred to the contract which guarentees that they uplift 50% of all freight originating in the States. DHL got around that one by claming that, as far as they are concerned, the freight originates in Europe (as it's carried trans-atlantic by Kalitta).

Latest rumours has it that Astar will be back, either in August or October once they've had a chance to cool off.

This side of the pond we thougth that with the demise of DHL Airways and Astars relegation to what is effectively contractor status, that the DHL US guys would wind their neck in and start reading from the same rule book as the rest of the world. It would seem there is still some lingering elements of superiority feeling, and the point of this highly political exercise is to tell Astar management, in no uncertain terms, that if they don't get in line the plug will be pulled.

We recently had a visitor from the ABX pilots union over to press flesh. Got a peek at the contracts for both ABX and Astar crew and was shocked. Not that I wouldn't mind pulling that kind of money. Am just left wondering if paying a DC8/767 skipper upwards of 250K USD/year is sustainable in this day and age - especially not seeing that both Astar and ABX (Air) are loosing money by the bucket load.

Anyway, the talks with the ABX man nearly broke down when he introduced the idea of ABX/Astar providing capacity for intra-EU flights. Or rather, we thougt it would be an excellent idea if he could just persuade Congress/FAA to allow our OO- and G- reg'd aircraft to perform domestic flights in the US. He waffled on and on about how one cannot compare the two and yadda yadda yadda, with each and every argument effectivly shot down by a very attentive audience, after which he made a hasty retreat to other topics of mutual interest

Having talked to a few of the Astar DC8 guys, one is left to wonder who exactly bought who, as ABX seems to be the loudest and very keen to call the shots. For DHL as such, not much cause for concern as neither Astar nor ABX (Air) are owned by DHL. They merely provide capacity, in the same way as Kalitta/Gemini/Lufthansa/Johnsons Air/MK Airlines/Atlant Hungary/Icebird Cargo/Danish Air Transport/West Air Sweden etc etc etc. and their contracts can be revoked with the usual 1-2 year get-out clauses.

 

[LarryinTN]

seeing that both Astar and ABX (Air) are loosing money by the bucket load.

From where did you get this information?

Astar is a private company so financial information is not available. ABX Air, however, is a public company and releases it's financials each quarter.

You can read the press release on Q1 earnings here: http://abxair.com/pr2005-05-05a.html Here are a few bullet points from the release:

• First quarter revenues up 25.3% to $346.6 million;
• First quarter net earnings up 18.4% to $7.1 million, or $0.12 per diluted share;
• Revenues from customers other than DHL grew to $6.4 million in the first quarter, up 87.2%; Earnings from non-DHL sources grew to $2.0 million, a 55.6% increase over the prior year;
• Packages handled during the first quarter increased 30.8% to 160.6 million versus the first quarter of 2004;

The press release for the full year 2004 financials can be found here: http://abxair.com/pr2005-02-25.html The summary for 2004 was, "For the year ended December 31, 2004, ABX reported revenue of $1.20 billion and net earnings of $37.0 million, or $0.63 per diluted share."

Although Astar does not release their financials I see no reason for it not to be similarly proportional to their fleet size.

 

[IHaveAPension]

Just heard from ABX management today that if the union does not agree to IROs on the 767 that ABX will dry lease the 767s intended to fly those charters to other operators in MIA. This will cost ABX approx. 20 crews and will result in more furloughs.

 

[S2B]

What is an IRO?

 

[PCL_128]

Just heard from ABX management today that if the union does not agree to IROs on the 767 that ABX will dry lease the 767s intended to fly those charters to other operators in MIA. This will cost ABX approx. 20 crews and will result in more furloughs.

Don't you claim to work for FedEx? How exactly are you getting inside info from ABX management? I think I smell a (hem)Rhoid.

 

[IHaveAPension]

Don't you claim to work for FedEx? How exactly are you getting inside info from ABX management? I think I smell a (hem)Rhoid.

Whatever you think of the smell, the information I said is true.

 

[rotor&wing]

you must understand, "mr. pension" is a baiter. and from watching his other post on various boards, this elevates him to a "master baiter".

he just wants to stir the pot.

 

[IHaveAPension]

Call it stirring the pot if you like, but it is true and if you work for either Astar or ABX, you know it's true or are just ignorant of reality and have you head buried in the sand hoping for the good ole days to return.

 

[ABXbooger]

how about the scope clause?

Why would it cost us crews when we are not even flying these so-called charters yet? We currently have 4 people flying the 767 in Miami.

Stop making stuff up...