PDT reduce fleet, furloughs in the future.

[kf4amu]

It wasnt the Middle East, it was speculators. People are able to control vast amounts of oil with very little capital using option. If enough people gain the rights to 100X the oil you have capital against, the price will go up pretty quickly.

 

[zasca]

Yeah we should really blame Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans for oil prices.... Since that's where the vast majority of ours comes from.... It really doesn't matter where it comes from.

IOU's and shady investment bank price predictions are what blew up the oil prices. OPEC's influence had been marginalized by rampant irrational exuberance.

 

[plnegoofy]

spoke with the gool ole regional CP says high intrest for our Dashs in Europe...go figure...lessor wanted some astronomical price to renew...company not negotiating anymore on those 4 aircraft and no negotiations ongoing for replacement aircraft. Says worst possible outcome is we operate the 33 we own with the 11 -300's at the end of the year. Whatever happened to you have to spend money to make money? Its not like we cant make money even with the higher lease rate! Oh right SF is in charge! I suspect furloughs in the future and I am going with J Hall...this place will be tango uniform by years end!

 

[Jar Jar]

spoke with the gool ole regional CP says high intrest for our Dashs in Europe...go figure...lessor wanted some astronomical price to renew...company not negotiating anymore on those 4 aircraft and no negotiations ongoing for replacement aircraft. Says worst possible outcome is we operate the 33 we own with the 11 -300's at the end of the year. Whatever happened to you have to spend money to make money? Its not like we cant make money even with the higher lease rate! Oh right SF is in charge! I suspect furloughs in the future and I am going with J Hall...this place will be tango uniform by years end!

Under that logic they might as well SELL the 33 we own too - because you sure as hell wont be able to sell them in 2014/2015 when the 300 leases expire. By then, far too many cycles for the maintenance costs/time to be worth flying them anymore.

Selling the owned 100s now provides a cash infusion to Airways which it can use to wholly-bone a couple more CRJs too.

Plus, hey, everyone likes shiny jet toys because they make cooler desk models in the PHX executive suites.

 

[kf4amu]

Whatever happened to you have to spend money to make money? Its not like we cant make money even with the higher lease rate!

You gotta realize they have already reduced RJ feed drastically on the routes PDT flies, while increasing the block hours PDT flew. At some point, the increase in carrying costs of the leased RJ's sitting idle outweighs the increased efficiency of the Dash fleet, especially if the lease costs of a dash increase dramatically. There was a pdf file on the PDT website from a few months ago that mentioned the lease costs went from 15k a month to 30k a month for a Dash. And that was prior to the negotiations for these 4!

 

[twighead]

This place is screwed. By the end of the year I will probably be a 4+ year FO on straight reserve. The only CA's left will be from MDT because everyone else will be furloughed.

I've stuck by this place when everyone else hired in the same year +/- 1 has pretty much left. I used to think that leaving so soon after being hired at PDT would be counter-productive to my career, but now I feel stupid for wasting my time. All those guys are captains on an E-170 now making more than double my pay with no end in sight.

If anyone starts hiring again I'm out of here.

P.S. I know none of you care, and will probably flame me for this post, but I had to get it out of my system.

 

[kf4amu]

This place is screwed. By the end of the year I will probably be a 4+ year FO on straight reserve. The only CA's left will be from MDT because everyone else will be furloughed.

I've stuck by this place when everyone else hired in the same year +/- 1 has pretty much left. I used to think that leaving so soon after being hired at PDT would be counter-productive to my career, but now I feel stupid for wasting my time. All those guys are captains on an E-170 now making more than double my pay with no end in sight.

If anyone starts hiring again I'm out of here.

P.S. I know none of you care, and will probably flame me for this post, but I had to get it out of my system.

lateral moves to another regional are rarely good

 

[AceCrackshot]

I am going with J Hall...this place will be tango uniform by years end!

J Hall has been singing gloom and doom since about 1993, when he was on his 6th marriage.

 

[AceCrackshot]

Yeah we should really blame Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans for oil prices.... Since that's where the vast majority of ours comes from.... It really doesn't matter where it comes from.

IOU's and shady investment bank price predictions are what blew up the oil prices. OPEC's influence had been marginalized by rampant irrational exuberance.

It was flight to quality when equities started to fall, and that flight created a speculative bubble.

Anyway, the natural price of oil is about $70-80/bbl at July 2008 dollars.

 

[WSurf]

This place is screwed. By the end of the year I will probably be a 4+ year FO on straight reserve. The only CA's left will be from MDT because everyone else will be furloughed.

I've stuck by this place when everyone else hired in the same year +/- 1 has pretty much left. I used to think that leaving so soon after being hired at PDT would be counter-productive to my career, but now I feel stupid for wasting my time. All those guys are captains on an E-170 now making more than double my pay with no end in sight.

If anyone starts hiring again I'm out of here.

P.S. I know none of you care, and will probably flame me for this post, but I had to get it out of my system.

Nobody will flame you for feeling the way you do. I was a FO for almost 5 years before I upgraded and I learned a bunch which has helped me plenty of times as a Captain. However after 4 years you're ready to move over and it can get frustrating.

Piedmont is what it is. Think about us Captain's and how frustrated we are also. No new planes, No movement so its a Build up, Reserve or a Crappy line. No airline hiring to help get out of here.

To make a move now would be crazy. Most of the regionals right now are gonna be stagnet or reduce even further. You have 4 years here and for what its worth I would hold out and stay.

But I can't blame you at all for be frustrated.

 

[olympus593]

If we lose all eleven it's not going to be pretty.

 

[WSurf]

If we lose all eleven it's not going to be pretty.

Yea, but we have already gone from 110 Planes ALG/PDT to 50 Planes in just 6 years. Ouch....

 

[FMEpilot]

Has this place ever had any growth or anything positive happen since SF took over?

 

[OPECJet]

Has this place ever had any growth or anything positive happen since SF took over?

Nope.... It started before he was running the show though.

 

[WSurf]

Has this place ever had any growth or anything positive happen since SF took over?

Yes, we had growth back in 2001 when we started getting the Dash 8-300's. We were suppose to get 16 Dash 8/300 but only got 11 after 9/11 happened.

Nice fleet of 63 planes 100/200/300's at Piedmont. Ever since 9/11 we have had nothing but reductions along with a bunch of hopes and dreams along with management lies.

Being a WO'ed of US Airways has definitely put a big hurt on this airline.