Future of CAL

[Pig]

Getting back to CAL, another important piece of the puzzle beyond good RASM, is the significant amount of debt maturities from 4th quarter '05 through the end of '07. It is close to 2 billion according to 1 article I read which included quotes of a interview from the CEO, Larry Kellner, about the debt. He admitted a significant amount of is coming due which will squeeze profits.

As a non-expert observer, the growth which CAL is planing I believe is aimed at growing out of this debt. CAL is trying to increase overall revenue over the next 2 years to make the debt which is coming due relatively smaller compared to the larger revenue which will be gained. As long as things stay on track without a protracted rise in jet fuel, a slowly growing economy continuing, and no significant terror/war related shocks, the plan should work. But any of these things could derail the plan. Also, the CEO has stated that '07 will be CAL's most difficult year to get though from the looks of things now, or actually 2 months ago when the interview was done.

 

[Cactus73]

I'm with Mk82man on this one. "Fights on the ramp, crews yelling at each other?" Where did you get that info Cactus? I've been doing a lot of PHL, Bos, and RDU trips recently and AAA crews, rampers, gate agents have been nothing but nice. You sound like one of the infamous 8 or 9 guys that got our webboard shut down from spreading half truths and fearmongering. Your intitials aren't HH by any chance are they?

No my name is not Herb H.

-There have been altercations on the ramp as per yesterday's AZ Republic. McClelland didn't even deny it in yesterday's article.

-We have had jumpseat incidents with some of the AAA pilots (you can PM me if you really want details and I'll fill you in). There have also been some incidents on crews vans. In fact, I had one myself last week in Denver where the Captain and the FO saw us and started talking about DOH and how it has to be the only way. We didn't respond and talked about non-flying stuff with ourselves and they eventually changed their topic.

-There was an incident with a commuting AAA FA and one of our FA's a few weeks back. The AAA FA is an ONT commuter if you heard the story.

-I'm not the one that got our web board shut down. In fact, I've never posted on the ALPA web board...never.

-There have been some very heated "discussions" on here on seniority integration and the recall rights of furloughed pilots. I wouldn't call some posts as debates. Also the "discussions" on who bought who. I can't stand him, but the guy that uses the handle Doug Parker on here hasn't exactly been debating.

Yes, it isn't all doom and gloom, but things aren't as rosy as the Company would like you to think. The CWA and IBT just reached an agreement with the Company today. That is good news for us. One less contract to negotiate.

Did you guys see the letter from Jerry Glass where he states the Company's belief that they have the right to impose AAA's contract on us? Or is this just "fearmongering" on my part.

I'm sure there are good stories out there. I went to Europe in October and took AAA both ways. I was treated like gold by both the outbound and inbound crews. They upgraded me when they found out I was AWA and on the return they took really good care of me. But I've also seen some of the bad parts of the merger. Have you guys been to STL lately?

 

[Green]

sorry to hijack the thread..

Cactus,

Hey I wasn't aware of those incidents. Unfortunate. The Herb H thing was a bad joke. Sorry about that. Anyways, I guess I've only had positive experiences so I assumed the majority must be that way. The other day we had some aaa fa's in the back non-revving and they gave our crew a batch of brownies. Of course they are going to screw our FA's in the integration so they can play nice and take the high road.