Furlough Announcement

[Jonny Sacko]

I think the guy's probably in the ball park. Who knows, but I guarantee it's due to age 65. Not a question about it. Thanks John Prater, you PUTZ

 

[General Lee]

Delta pilots got a no furlough clause for 2 years after the merger I thought? Can Delta furlough before the merger?

It would be interesting to see what happens if Delta/NWA try to furlough a NWA pilot after the merger.

We have a no furlough clause currently for everyone including TBKANE and up, and we have hired 700 or so below him, including a class yesterday. I guess they could furlough those guys below Kane, but we are really short again, and we start 8 or 9 new INTL routes from JFK starting June 1st (Amman, Cairo, Cape Town via Dakar, Malaga, Lyon, etc) and a few new routes from ATL this Summer---resumption of Shannon, adding Stockholm. We will get 6 new 777LRs at the end of this year, and that too will atleast retain people, maybe start up hiring again if NWA does come to the party yet.

And, our current No Furlough clause includes the economy and price of fuel as reasons they CANNOT furlough, and cannot be included in Forced Manure.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[scarlet]

Yeah Intl markets will follow America economy eventually watch....Intl=didn't work to well for Pan AM or Eastern...???

 

[Truckdriver]

Regarding JetBlue, anythings possible. But......
If B6 furloughs anyone the company is on the hook for min guarantee for the duration of each pilot's 5 year contract. Translation: if they furlough a newhire they owe him about 4.5 years of pay. If JetBlue shuts the doors that little bit of contract trivia is worthless. We can get in line with the rest of the debtors. Barring that, there's no way the rest of us would allow them to furlough some of us and not pay them IAW our contracts. All hell would break loose. The bottom line is that it would cost JetBlue more to furlough than to keep them.

BTW, our Q1 numbers are out. PRASM up 16.5%; CASM minus fuel down 0.2%, fuel up 40.5%; cash on hand $1B; net loss for Q1 $8M. All in all, not too bad. With everything we could control we did well. Like everybody else fuel killed us. Still, we're fortunate to be treading water, but who knows how long that will last. We're doing okay compared to others our size, but can we survive against even weak legacies? I hope so......

So what they will do is not renew the next 100 5 year contracts that come up. They will tell those guys they don't need them for awhile and their contracts will be renewed when they need them again. Your right they will never pay someone min guarantee and furlough them, but they have the ability to not renew some of those contracts. I would be worried if I were a summer 03 hire at JetBlue and less worried if I were a newhire.

 

[regionalcap]

Delta pilots got a no furlough clause for 2 years after the merger I thought? Can Delta furlough before the merger?

It would be interesting to see what happens if Delta/NWA try to furlough a NWA pilot after the merger.

You are referring to LOA 19. It still has to be ratified. I think the voting is in May. The clause said the clock begins when they announce the merger (already done) until 24 months after the closure. It says there are certain conditions though (not sure what they are). Hope the best for everyone. I don't want to see anyone out of a job. We all have families to feed.

 

[Bavarian Chef]

So what they will do is not renew the next 100 5 year contracts that come up. They will tell those guys they don't need them for awhile and their contracts will be renewed when they need them again. Your right they will never pay someone min guarantee and furlough them, but they have the ability to not renew some of those contracts. I would be worried if I were a summer 03 hire at JetBlue and less worried if I were a newhire.

In your opinion of course, as an ex-jb pilot.

 

[Skank]

The brown asterik at the bottom of his backside.

Thanks for stating so eloquently what I was thinking.

 

[Truckdriver]

In your opinion of course, as an ex-jb pilot.

That is just my opinion, but what do you think they will do if they need to furlough? It looks like they are stopping all hiring, so they probably won't need to furlough, but if they got into that position do you really think with the way things are set up that they would furlough the new guys then pay them for 4 years or just not renew some contracts that are coming up on 5 years? Not trying to bash here, just calling it like I see it.

 

[Skank]

I do see a lot of RJs being parked in the near future. As far as mainline planes at DL, maybe some of the gas guzzlers. We are still getting new planes for INTL expansion which is truely where the higher revenue is at these days. Airlines with only domestic ops will suffer more, unless they have hedges.


Bye Bye--General Lee

Before you run off to join the Boyd Goup, Herr General, I would be a little worried about all of us Yanks with monopoly money running off to Europe for a vacation at a 1.59:1 dollar/Euro exchange rate. I know that you can afford it, but the rest of us...not so much.

 

[Going2Baja]

The Karma Train has left the station!!

In this order:


UAL 300
DAL 110
CAL 220
SWA none (haha)
AirTorch 135
JBLU 100
NWA 340


I guess that may be it

Karma has a strange way of coming back and biting you in the a$$ dude. Enjoy what days you have left in the 'heavy' RJ you fly and get the napkin ready you call a resume....Your days are numbered!!

Baja.