Is Airnet A Dying Company?

[starcheckdriver]

With all the recent talk of an upper management person being let go, the hiring of the financial advisor firm, and the potential sale of part or all of Airnet, do you guys think Airnet is dying and we'll be jobless soon or are we okay for the next 2-5 years? Just interested in everyone's thoughts.

 

[Princedietrich]

Ok, before you go any further, relax and take a deep breath and pull your head out of the sands of paranoia. Airnet isn't going anywhere, it may change and adapt a little but it's not going to go under.

 

[freightdoggie]

I disagree, I think it is a dying company and Biggerstaff and his goons are gonna take the money and run. It will be a slow death though. Maybe this time next year they will be asking you to work for free for a weekend...

 

[Fly BI]

I disagree, I think it is a dying company and Biggerstaff and his goons are gonna take the money and run. It will be a slow death though. Maybe this time next year they will be asking you to work for free for a weekend...

Ouch! Do I smell a US Air analogy??

 

[UnstableAviator]

Yesterday's article in the Columbus Dispatch didn't sound too promising for the future. Unhappy stockholders, Check 21 playing a bigger factor, etc.

I know a lot of people working there, I'd sure hate to see them go under anytime soon. Good luck to everyone there.

 

[starcheckdriver]

Yeah, the Dispatch also wrote that Airnet moved to Rickenbacker some time ago. Shows how much you can believe the media! But, Airnet still seems to be going downhill and Biggerstaff is doing nothing to help. Hopefully this new investment firm/financial advisor will advise the board that we need a new CEO.

 

[Flyboy6420]

It'll take more than new management to save Airnet, they're all in denial about Check 21. I'm not sure how I feel about a management team that has an all sunshine and lollipops feeling about a large percentage of their business disappearing, but I would doubt those kind of folks have any kind of strategy to compensate for their changing mission. I've heard that Biggerstaff is the religous type, perhaps divine intervention has become the key to the Airnet business plan.

Airnet will still be around, they carry the stuff nobody else is crazy enough to carry...but they'll be much smaller.

 

[Checks]

JUST MY OPINION!
I wanted to work at Airnet forever when I first went there in 2001. After I heard about Check21 I looked at the large percentage of checks I was carrying and realized that the cargo side of the house was going to lose a lot of overall business. The only growth I could see for the foresable future was on the charter side and I didnt want to fly charter. I dont see how any company can prosper when they lose 80% of their revenue(ok, probably closer to 60-70% now). How any one truly believes the banks will continue flying checks instead of trucking them is beyond my, just doesnt make sense. They are going to stop flying those checks. Wont happen overnight but it will be pretty darn close.

It is a good company and they wont totally disappear but it will be painful for awhile.

 

[petepilot]

The answer to the original post is yes, it is

 

[Guillotine007]

You guys are too negative.

 

[tsky]

from what I understand, it is going to take the banks a couple of years to get set up for check 21, so they will probably not lose their check buisness overnight, but if I had to guess, check flying will probably drop off in 2-3 years.

 

[icefr8dawg]

I second...it probably is. Go watch a major airnet ramp and you'll see tons more bags and boxes of checks than movie cannisters, lead boxes (radioactive work)and horse semen carriers. ( I've only heard about the later but have no clue what a horse semen cannister would look like myself) Anyway, apply what you see to their financials and it looks awfully red. On the other hand, a whole lotta money and more bulk-capable aircraft would make airnet a pretty cool ups feeder wouldn't it? A closely held company might keep it's assets close and try to time the end of bank work then sell the planes but Airnet on the other hand is a public firm and has to do the best it can to create value for its shareholders. In comes Jetride...or windrider or whatever. I wonder what the duration of AirNow's contract with UPS is? I betcha the fat American Express carrying sales folks at airnet are working pretty hard to figure it out...

As an aside my company is a goner too which is one reason that our pilots jump to regionals and ups/fedex feeders after building time here. Well, that and fear for our lives...

 

[wingnutt]

( I've only heard about the later but have no clue what a horse semen cannister would look like myself)...

...believe it or not, its a bullet shaped, 5 gallon, steel bucket

 

[pilotyip]

The instant you go into scheduled cargo feeder routes you are going into a bidding war on who can do it cheaper. The bottom line at the company takes a real beating. There is a history of the last thing a company did before it went out of business was go into scheduled runs. Look at Reliant Airlines and their last ditch relationship with Fedex. Bye Bye Reliant.

 

[pilotyip]

Last I heard checks make up about 60% of the flying at Airnet and only about 40% of the revenue. The Jet Ride is a growing part of Air Net and their major money maker.

 

[Flyboy6420]

How many of you all receive paper checks from your bank at the end of the month?

Check 21 is here, Airnet's a goner.

 

[freightdoggie]

How many of you all receive paper checks from your bank at the end of the month?

Check 21 is here, Airnet's a goner.

We dont fly cancelled checks to each persons house who writes a check genius, getting your checks printed online has nothing to do with getting the original paper checks back. Well not directly anyways. Check 21 is about bank to bank transfers, not bank to customer.

Jet ride does help the bottom line at Airnet, but they are breaking off altogether from Airnet, to form a separate company. So if Airnet goes under, Jet Ride would still exist. Ive heard talks of them pumping up Jet ride then selling it off for a profit also. But who knows....

 

[Sgt. Hartman]

Flyboy-
Next time educate yourself on a topic before you speak unintelligently on it. It is true that check 21 is here and will slowly change the business of flying checks but it has nothing to do with why you may get a photocopy of your checks and not the actual piece of paper.

 

[I Hate Freight]

How many of you all receive paper checks from your bank at the end of the month?

Check 21 is here, Airnet's a goner.

Say goodbye to Flight Express as well, I'm sure.

IHF

 

[Princedietrich]

There sure have been a lot of posts from people on here who seem to WANT Airnet to die. What do y'all have against the starcheckers anyway?

 

[VampyreGTX]

Working in the financial industry currently and spending years in banking before, Check 21 will not cause the dissapearance of checks overnight. Believe it or not, I actually had one bank (a VERY large, bank, with subsidiaries all over the world) actually have the VP of operations not know how to process a check 21 transaction. They bounced the transaction for our customer after another bank submitted his check for payout through the check 21 system. They said they had no clue what they got.... So trust me, it will be a very slow process. Especially installing the equipment in the local, small town privately owned banks. Airnet will have PLENTY of time to modify it's operations.

 

[starchkr]

I definately want airnet to hang around for awhile...however, latest word is that Bank of America and Wells will be pulling out next month some time. That affects part of the run i do, and everything on the west coast and central states at the least. Word is, and it has been verified with others above myself, that it is true, and the runs will be changing possibly sooner than we all thought.

 

[wings421]

I definately want airnet to hang around for awhile...however, latest word is that Bank of America and Wells will be pulling out next month some time. That affects part of the run i do, and everything on the west coast and central states at the least. Word is, and it has been verified with others above myself, that it is true, and the runs will be changing possibly sooner than we all thought.

Thats sad to hear. My run in St. Louis had a lot of B of A.

 

[$$$4nothin]

Airnet

Airnet has great to me over the last year, but it is time to move on. Airnet might not go under completely but runs will change, bases will close and people who are at airnet for the stability location and quality of life might not be to happy. Time for me to move on.

 

[trfenwyd]

You guys are too negative.

It's not negativity. It's extreme cautiosness. I would like nothing else than to see Airnet pull through, but when you hire an outside firm to come and and look at cost cutting measures, remember the Bob's, it's never a good sign. Good luck to all the freight doggies

 

[trfenwyd]

P.S. when they start selling their barons, somebody let me know. I want one.

 

[wings421]

P.S. when they start selling their barons, somebody let me know. I want one.

Have you seen them? Well maintained, but not the queens of the ramp. Anyone know how much time 1814W has on it?

 

[Sgt. Hartman]

More time than the last 500 new hire XJT FO's combined

 

[Captain Morgan]

Barons? Ha! There are Cessna 310's down here in BHM with 22,000 hrs on them! And yes, they make popping noises when descending! Kinda scary...