Great Plains out of business?

[Beechnut]

Friend just called saying his training has been stopped. He thought the company is closing their door for good. Anyone know more about this?

S.

 

[Swaayze]

Wish I knew. It's gonna be an interesting next few weeks. I don't have a warm and fuzzy feeling right now. Gonna go fly today....so I guess they're not shuttin it down just yet.

 

[skydog]

Beechnut, I assume your friend was in the Feb 17th class at Great Plains? Please confirm. I was supposed to interview in Feb, couldn't, then was to reschedule, but it never materialized on Great Plains' end. Still waiting. I assumed it would be for the March class that was planned. Sounds like they sent the Feb class home? Swaayze ( or anyone else currently on property at GP)...any info? Thanks....

 

[Swaayze]

It was the Jan class that was sent home and eventually furloughed. A few of them were about halfway thru sim training. The company leasing the 4 new Dorniers to us has not yet closed the deal to purchase them and until that happens cash is tight and some people are being furloughed to conserve $$. We furloughed about 25 people last week across various employee groups.

If the airplane deal gets closed soon everything will be ok again (at least for a while) and pilot hiring will have to resume. They're trying very hard to make something positive happen - it's just very tough in this industry right now. If you know anyone with a spare few million to invest.....PM me!

FWIW, the interviewing was still for the Feb class I think.

 

[skydog]

Swaayze, was there a class that started on Feb 17th? When I talked to Casey/Kasey, she said there was a Feb 17th class and one planned in March. I just assumed I would be interviewing for the March class, since Feb 17th had already passed when I was setting up the interview. By your prevoius post, I assume the training class sent home/furloughed was the Jan class and the Feb 17th class never materialized? Is this correct?

 

[Swaayze]

Yes, the furloughees were from January. 9 of them. The Feb class was initially pushed a week and then cancelled. They have a habit of waiting 'til the last minute to hire for a given class, and I think they were still looking for a few Feb attendees when the interviews were cancelled.

fwiw

 

[fr8doggydog]

My roommate was furloughed this week...

 

[skydog]

why the furloughs....are they just waiting to finalize the lease agreements for the 4 additional 328's before hiring more or is it more serious than that????

 

[Swaayze]

I think it's serious. My personal opinion, these 4 new DoJets will probably never fly here. They're looking into other options still. Operating funds are very low (no numbers given) and it seems that they're just trying to keep it afloat as long as possible so they can hopefully make something happen. I wouldn't recommend turning down any other job offers.

Wish us luck