FlightOptions

[Grim Reaper]

Many of the King Air guys will be moving to their first jet. No big deal except there are a few that have avoided leaving the King Air because they do not want to fly anything else so some will move on to other things.

 

[On Your Six]

No layoffs. But with Citation and King Air pilots coming over, upgrade times for our FOs have increased. I don't think the King Air pilots will be happy. Those bums might actually have to work if they went to the Hawker or Beechjet.

I'm sure the guys on the GIV and 601 aren't too happy either. Although I guess the Legacy does have great "ramp presence." How many Legacies are planned to be on the line in 2005 and when will the GIVs and 601s be leaving the fleet? Will the departure of the GIV and the 601 mean that there will be less international flying to Europe, etc. or will the Legacy be able to handle that?

 

[Grim Reaper]

I would encourage anyone thinking about employment with Flight Options to consider the following:

1. Flight Options has never has a profitable quarter. Flight Options is approx seven years old.

2. Dollar losses continue. There is no way that the interiem CEO can hold first quarter 05 losses to that forecast to the Board during the most recent Board meeting. Weekly charter cost for the month of January alone have far exceeded estimates. There will be another announcement of a senior magagement type leaving to seek other oppurtunities.

3. As stated by another poster on another string, Flight Options has or is making First Officer a career postion. The upgrade time will more than double with 40 plus pilots from other programs transitioning during first quarter 05. Most of those transitioning will go to the Hawker and Beechjet with some of the more senior going to the Legacy.

4. Expect this trend to continue. Do not put much stock in the notion that Flight Options will operate anything other than a Raytheon product longterm. The announment that Flight Options will operate the Legacy, the X, Hawkers and BeechJet: yeah, Right!! If you are a X guy or Legacy person, learn to spell Horizion or Hawker. Raytheon is not in the business of supporting Cessna, Falcon, etc.

5. Raytheon is the majority holder in Flight Options. Certain financial transactions are pending that will have Ratheon taking a stonger hold on Flight Options while edging out other investors.

6. Domicile policy will change. When and to what degree depends but you can expect a much more restricted list of domiciles.

7. Pay and benefits will not improve. Rather, it is more than likely that this will be an area of regression. Now there will not be an out and out pay cut, but the cost of benefits to the employee will continue to creep up while other bennies just go away.

Just some things to think about. Does not really matter much right now that the Flight Options is planning to park or dispose of 30 plus aircraft per year without a furlough and thus transistion pilots to other airframes. But the day may come when hiring starts again and you will want to make an informed decision.

 

[waveoff]

Look into fast food...seriously.

Check out how much you could make in the restaurant business. http://www.rtminc.com/Right_Compensation.htm The website belongs to a restaurant group that operates close to 1000 restaurants around the country.

 

[Dep676]

Boy I hope you are right about another or two leaving. Hopefully the initials are JS and BS.

 

[minimums]

Contract

Has anyone who is being forced out of the citation or king air been asked to sign a training contract for the beechjet or other a/c?

 

[waveoff]

Man...

That would be utter B.S. if they did have to sign a training contract if they were forced into another plane. It wouldn't suprise me if they pulled something like that though.

 

[Grim Reaper]

Dep676, the current middle management team is almost the same as it was on the day of the RTA / FO merger and that is a surprise. In my past experiences, when a new CEO arrives, he cleans house so that he might get rid of the old thinking and the old way of doing business. A new management team is installed and thus the old examples are erased and new methods and processes are installed.

What we have before us now, with a couple of very minor exceptions, is a Ricci / Rossi trained middle management team. These gentlemen do not know how to think through the process and make the necessary changes going forward without injecting the Ricci way into the thought process. As a result, the employee group is shackled to the old way of doing things and the company is dying.

My hope is that the interim CEO falls on his Regional Airline background can and is replaced by someone that will shake up middle management in a very extreme way. By that I mean replace each and every one of them; VP’s PM’s OCC managers: the lot. Why? Because these people are incompetent and dragging down the company. Pilot moral is low to non-existent and the company continues to bleed RED. Flight Options needs a new management team completely free of the influences of Ricci and the Ricci holdovers.

 

[Dep676]

Has anyone who is being forced out of the citation or king air been asked to sign a training contract for the beechjet or other a/c?

Yes they were. Anyone that has had recent type has too.

 

[Dep676]

I could not agree with you more. The imcompetence is killing us. Can't wait until Feb 17th. We will see the real incompetence come out.