Midwest Express to lay off 200 to 250

[bravo]

There is a letter

Yes, there is a letter. Came from Mike Rabbitt himself. One of my classmates also got one. Jay might want to give Mike a call and see whats up or for that fact, call him yourself. His closing sentence " Please call our office if we can help in any way". You know Mike, a pretty open guy. Mail might be alittle slow in some areas.

This furlough business is serious stuff for alot of pilots, and I would never play games with news like this.

I am sure that things can change at a moments notice, but inlight of the financial news and the flight attendant situation, things are not looking to good.

Good luck.

 

[Lindy]

The letter...

Yes, it really does exist. Received it in the mail today. Not to be rude, I have found that the information on this board is MORE accurate than other sources.

It was well written and I especially like the first paragraph that, in part stated "[o]ur prayers are with all of the families affected by the tragedies last year."

Additionally, the time line for recalls, as ennunciated by Midwest Express : "will not be recalling any more pilots for the remainder of this year, and potentially the first half of 2003."


The one item that didn't add up was the listed number of pilots still furloughed. I thought that there were about 12 more than listed. Check your seniority lists.

PM if anyone has questions.

 

[Jake]

Amazing!!

About four weeks ago at the OBAP convention Midex was all smiles and said they would be having new hire classes the first of the year. Then three weeks ago, this info was confirmed by a VERY reliable source in the pilot recruiting office. In the course of three weeks they have become so hard-up that they are laying off 200-250 people and pushing off recalls almost a year.

Absolutely amazing!! How can such a well run airline make such a blunder. Did someone in the finance dept. misplace a decimal several places or add a several zeros inadvertantly? Did mid-quarter numbers all of a sudden take a "dive"?

Oh well, best of luck to everyone who was counting on some good news for a change and now has to re-group.

Cheers.

 

[1800 RVR]

That was the story that was floating around back in August - new hire class in Jan/Feb. However, the flight attendants threatening their CHAOS stuff I believe is really cutting into the future bookings. This, as well as the industry going into the slowest 2 quarters, isn't helping the bottom line. The predictions that they made this summer in regards to staffing needs were probably viewed through rose-colored glasses. Now they're talking about eliminating 200-250 positions to ease the financial bleeding. Some of those jobs will be through furlough.

NOTE: NO PILOT FURLOUGHS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED, YET.

This doesn't mean that there won't be any again. The latest message says that management needs to figure out the block hours, aircraft flows, training bubble for the 717, etc. for the revised flight schedule that will go into effect in Nov. This will give an idea as to how many pilots are needed to cover the schedule. We are opening new markets as well as giving some to Skyway RJ's, so it's hard to tell what the net increase/decrease in flying will be. Those of us at the bottom of the list are waiting to see if we are going to be shown the door, again.

I really think that if the AFA and the company could agree on a contract, things might start to look a little better.