H/R e-mail for USA3000

[SWA tech]

Hello, I am trying to get on at USA3000 in St.Louis as a aircraft mechanic how long before they call you? Also any one have the h/r fax number or e-mail any help would be great thanks pm if you would like to

 

[macdu]

Unless you are currently unemployed I would keep looking.

 

[NEDude]

Unless you are currently unemployed I would keep looking.

And if you are employed, start looking.

 

[smoknjoe]

USA3000 is shrinking. Going from 11 A/C today to 4 in august. The best kept secret in our industry becoming a ghost because the owners choose to hire a J.O. type who thinks the solution to everything is labor cost. It was soooo nice while it lasted, but im heading to the unemployment line for the second time in 1 year so you have to please excuse me. Peace love and frisbees to all........
Take care.
Joe.

 

[Horrido]

Ouch...that's too bad. I feel your pain...was laid off after 12 years at Midwest in December. Straight from the left seat to the street. A lot of great people put out to pasture these days. I hope it gets better at some point.

 

[NEDude]

USA3000 is shrinking. Going from 11 A/C today to 4 in august. The best kept secret in our industry becoming a ghost because the owners choose to hire a J.O. type who thinks the solution to everything is labor cost. It was soooo nice while it lasted, but im heading to the unemployment line for the second time in 1 year so you have to please excuse me. Peace love and frisbees to all........
Take care.
Joe.

Don't think it is so much of trying to kill labor costs -although the flight attendants are the highest paid in the industry when you compare total actual compensation. I think ultimately the family has realized the reality of running an airline is far different than the romantic dream of running an airline. I think what you are seeing is a systematic downsizing of the airline for eventual shut down while trying to keep those who are needed as long as possible (ie keep them from jumping ship too early). Apple is shifting a lot of flying to LCC airlines such as AirTran, Frontier and Allegiant and I think they are finding that a lot cheaper than giving it too their own in-house airline.

Sad because it is such a great little company to fly for. But unlike a publically held company, all the money that gets lost, or must be risked to run the airline, is the personal money of the family, and not that of other investors, so the realities are different for us.

 

[macdu]

"Apple is shifting a lot of flying to LCC airlines such as AirTran, Frontier and Allegiant and I think they are finding that a lot cheaper than giving it too their own in-house airline"

Exactly. Why bother with the in house airline anymore. They don't offer anything different than the other guys anymore. It used to be at the beginning the hot meals, Mimosa's, unique destinations, that sort of thing. Now it's a box of dried !@#$ they have to pay for, no more Mimosa's, and the destinations are not unique. Punta Cana and Cancun are crowded with traffic from all over, and, it's this traffic that is knocking on the door of Apple to beg for it's business.

 

[smoknjoe]

Using AirTran and those others is cheaper right now, but wont be when the economy bounces back. AirTran is doing the BOS-PUJ at a loss. This is one of those cyclic things that made Apple create an Airline to begin with. Everytime they go with someone else the price jumps. Just like Continental on the EWR-PUJ after we closed that domicile. The reasons for U3K to excist are still valid. And we HAD a fiercly loyal customer base on several FL routes. Pax would come up and tell us to not stop flying there. Saying they would pay more. But still they killed those routes. Soo now we just wait and see.....

 

[N905TW]

The reasons for U3K to excist are still valid.

Soo now we just wait and see.....

Totally agree with you there, and I will second the other poster's opinion that this place is/was one of the "best kept secrets" in the airline world.

This will be furlough # 3 for me, which is a shame since quality of life here cannot be beat if you live in base as I do!!!

I worry that with only 4 airplanes scheduled for fall, the "family" pulling the strings may just rush to make decisions and say "what's the point"?

Good luck to us all....

 

[maxblast72]

Using AirTran and those others is cheaper right now, but wont be when the economy bounces back. AirTran is doing the BOS-PUJ at a loss. This is one of those cyclic things that made Apple create an Airline to begin with. Everytime they go with someone else the price jumps. Just like Continental on the EWR-PUJ after we closed that domicile. The reasons for U3K to excist are still valid. And we HAD a fiercly loyal customer base on several FL routes. Pax would come up and tell us to not stop flying there. Saying they would pay more. But still they killed those routes. Soo now we just wait and see.....

Where did you hear Airtran is doing those flights at a loss? Everything we have heard is that charters are very profitable. We don't have to worry about filling the airplane up. That is Apple's job.

As for getting airplanes from point A to B, Airtran does a great, reliable job of that with our brand new 737s. If one breaks, Airtran has an easier time of rotating their 136 aircraft around to cover the schedule than a little airline like USA3000.

As for some of the FL routes that USA3000 flies like PIT-RSW, Airtran is finding those routes to be very profitable as we have gone from just 5 flights a day from to PIT-ATL to 12 flights a day from PIT including 5 to ATL, 2 to MCO, 2 to RSW, 2 to FLL, and 1 to TPA. The larger operation lets us spread the costs over more flights/seats than USA3000 single roundtrip to RSW.

 

[smoknjoe]

Spoke with The Capt on the BOS-PUJ-BOS so this is second hand for me. He claimed to have spoken with his CP and that come out in the conversation. He also said he had to stay within 50 miles of shore. Is that a fact? If so that can make for quite a long trip.

And please dont misunderstand. I have no beef with any pilot at Airtran. Have dozens of great friends over there whom are very happy.

Take care.
Joe.

 

[scrub]

164 miles

 

[maxblast72]

We have the 162 mile exemption. Airtran does NE to South Florida on the ARs between Wilminton and FLL all the time.

 

[Jetjockey]

What bases will be left? That sucks for everyone there.

 

[MCDU]

Word is no furloughs. USA 3000 is planning on terminations. Good luck to all the real Usair pilots that decided not to come back due to the nic award .

M

 

[fam62c]

Sorry to hear this news, I hate to see more pilots lose their jobs and I know some people at USA 3000 who really liked it. Sooner or later the string of bad news will end and things will start to get better, good luck to all........hang in there.

 

[NEDude]

Termination letters were sent to pilots which had a bunch of references to flight attendant stuff. The flight attendants are non-union and some different policies than the pilots.

In other words the letter was sent out and completely violates our CBA regarding furloughs and recall rights. So far the company has not stated what the bases will be or how many pilots will be left. The company did state all of that information will be announced by Feb 15th. Well here we are and we still don't know. By CBA we have to have a vacancy/domicile bid by this Saturday, March 14, to be effective on the date they are "terminating" everyone.

 

[SWA tech]

Nice place to work I think I am just going to get out of aviation

 

[ttuite]

grrrrrr

 

[smoknjoe]

grrrrrr

What are you grrrrrrring about.

You helped lowering the bar for the whole industry when you bypassed seniorety and went to Freedom, Helping Ornstein getting a grappy CBA out of the Mesa pilot. They had to use most of their barganing capitol to get you scumbags back under ALPA and one seniorety list. And that was used against every other Regional later. And then the majors had to narrow the gap.

You suck....

 

[ttuite]

What are you grrrrrrring about.

You helped lowering the bar for the whole industry when you bypassed seniorety and went to Freedom, Helping Ornstein getting a grappy CBA out of the Mesa pilot. They had to use most of their barganing capitol to get you scumbags back under ALPA and one seniorety list. And that was used against every other Regional later. And then the majors had to narrow the gap.

You suck....

Amazing how you can rewrite history to benefit your precious ego. Almost none of what you say is true. I can't help notice that you work for an airline that is raising the bar for A320 operators????? Pretty ironic, that when it benefits you you will work for an airline that pays below industry average wages and then throw stones at someone else who does the same thing. You are pathetic! By the way, learn how to spell you moron.

 

[waka]

Amazing how you can rewrite history to benefit your precious ego. Almost none of what you say is true. I can't help notice that you work for an airline that is raising the bar for A320 operators????? Pretty ironic, that when it benefits you you will work for an airline that pays below industry average wages and then throw stones at someone else who does the same thing. You are pathetic! By the way, learn how to spell you moron.

By the way, learn how to use a comma, you moron.


Sorry, I couldn't resist!

 

[ttuite]

Ok,,,,,

 

[need2fly]

Furlough notices are out

I got my furlough notice this morning via email. I have heard that the bottom 9 pilots on the property are being terminated and the rest of us will be furloughed via the CBA. The terminated pilots are all still on probation, that is the only thing I can think of to explain the way the company is handling this.

N2F

 

[N905TW]

I was in the last class, part of the bottom group of 9, and I also got my "Furlough" Notice this morning via Email.

The situation sucks, but its nice to at least see "FURLOUGHED" instead of "TERMINATED" on the paperwork.

 

[bpapaDC8]

Furloughs really suck. Going on my second one shortly. Hopefully, we can all land on our feet. Best of luck U3kers

 

[MCDU]

how many furloughs are
there going to be?

M

 

[macdu]

Roughly 42, I don't have the list in front of me. Thats about 33% of our group. Pretty sad. My pessimism says more to come.

 

[MCDU]

Sorry to hear. Looks like apple is no longer interested in running an airline. I hear airtran is ready to sell apple many seats.

M

 

[NEDude]

Sorry to hear. Looks like apple is no longer interested in running an airline. I hear airtran is ready to sell apple many seats.

M

My thoughts exactly. However I do think working on the DoD contracts and ETOPS certification means they are trying to make the airline attractive to sell and they are not just planning on shutting it down. There are some fun, although admittedly far fetched, rumors out there as well.