PSA Questions

[captainv]

before you guys get too worked up, MattERAU is a fake. the web site is real, but some jacka$$ put the address in his profile, then started posting obviously inflammatory comments on this board. do a search on his username and you'll see what i mean....

I emailed the real Matt. His reply:

Thanks for the notice. It is quite interesting. I had an oral with my instructor this evening and he walked in and said, "I think I picked up one of your posts on FlightInfo.com." I was like, "What?" I'd never heard of the site before, much less post anything to it. My IP is a member, so he showed me the posts and the person's profile. I have no clue who he/she is or anything but I've already begun measures to have him/her removed.

Thanks again for the notice. I have started my own (real) account, but it is not yet active and I cannot yet post messages to the forum. You're more than welcome to repost this email to the forum so that everyone knows what the situation is. I must admit I haven't read all of this person's posts yet, so I don't know how much he/she has done to attempt to damage my reputation thus far. Hopefully everything will be alright.

 

[Weasil]

Our MEC seems to be taking a stand and is willing to loose their (our) jobs over this situation without allowing us to vote or at least consulting the majority. Word has it that if the 70+ seat issues are not resolved which will cause the CRJ 701's to leave the property, our CRJ 200 program will be stopped at about 32 planes or cut back to who knows what.

BFE,

There is some real misinformation getting around apparently. Were you not aware of the recent vote which was open to the ENTIRE pilot group. The 70 pay rates were voted down by the pilots not by the MEC!! In fact only 140 or so pilots even bothered to vote... did you?

 

[Weasil]

Hey,

I had a couple of questions about PSA. I'm currently at a 121 turboprop carrier and thinking about going over to a jet carrier.

Are the mins flexible or are they pretty much set in stone at 1500 and 250?

Also what is the junior base? How long is upgrade running?

I know they're tied only to Airways, but so is my other carrier. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

To answer your questions (it's a shame how threads always hijacked)

The rumor coming from HR is that the mins are going to become flexible. They are already hiring without an ATP and that was a set in stone minimum before. I heard that they were going to look as low as 1200 and 100 multi but that's not from any official source. I do know this... we are scrambling to train as fast as possible.

Junior base was originally DAY for new jet f/o's as they were trying to build up some reserves but then the APL list ran dry for JFJ FO's and so all of a sudden we didn't have any more FO's coming in and none had been pooled. There were something like 1800 pilots furloughed from airways I believe and we were supposed to have lots of willing pilots under the JFJ program but that didn't happen. Hence all the cancellations now cause nobody started hiring crews and training them early on. Now we are training as fast as possible.

Now there are almost no reserve lines (everybody is flying) and FO's are getting assigned to any of the 3 jet bases as lines are added and routes are added or changed so there doesn't appear to be any consistent junior base right now.. it keeps changing. I do know that a lot of senior people plan on bidding charlotte though when that opens up.

As for upgrade times, if we keep growing as fast as we are right now and maintain present turnover rates for captains then you are looking at about a year is what I've heard... again just speculation (not official company info).
Hope that helps.

 

[328dude]

BFE:


For the love of god, get your info straight before you post on here.

If your the majority on the 700 issue, then you must be one of the 5 that would entertain the idea of giving up your senority.

The real majority speaks louder than you.

 

[flytheblue]

Random question-

What the heck is PSA supposed to stand for? They don't even tell you on the company website (not anywhere that I could find.)

 

[dasmith]

psa=pacifc southwest

look at airliners.net for the old psa aircraft - mostly calif. routes

 

[DorkProp]

The current PSA does not stand for anything. It's just a nostalgic name given to the former Jetstream International Airways, or whatever we used to be called.

 

[91100 100 set]

A little history...

The original PSA was Pacific Southwest Airlines. (US Airways got ahold of them sometime in the late 80's. I'm sure just about any old-timer at Airways can tell you what USAir did to that company's presence out west).

The three wholly-owned companies, excluding Mid-Atlantic, are all named after older airlines that either evloved into USAir, or was gobbled up by USAir.

Allegheny used to be Suburban Airlines. Shortly after the name change, the group was merged with Pennsylvania Airlines, even though in the eyes of most Suburban pilots is was more of a takeover. There's some interesting history with that whole thing.

Piedmont used to be Henson.

Of course, on July 1st, I guess Allegheny ceased to be with the merger of ALG and Piedmont. But as far as I can tell, it was simply a merger on paper so far.

 

[N93]

Unfortunately the 70 seat issue will soon be resolved by US Airways management sending them elsewhere. The mainliners will march off to Mid Atlantic as their freeze's expire. The rest will have to do with what UAIR management decides to do with a 30 airpline airline comprised of 50 seat rj's. Can anyone say MESA here we come?

 

[Smoking Man]

The only thing you got right out of all of that is that the J4J guys will march off when the one year is up. Out side of that not even close.

 

[N93]

Listen to the 7/2 code-a-phoneand ask when has UAIR management not acted spitefully over these kind of issues. There is nothing any agreement that requires the 70 seat CRJ to be at a specific carrier. the 4 on the property will get yanked, and the 50 seat deliveries can be transferred or stopped. What happens after that is likely to be furloughs to accomodate the remaning J4J pilots snd who knows after that. UAIR will have 22 EMB 170/175 in service fr the September schedule and 40 by January. Check out the September schedule in Sabre and you will see the EMB 170 on a lot of CLT city pairs likely replacing the planned CRJ 701 flying. It appears they are not going to have a problem with 70 seat lift. I'd say the proverbial poop is about to hit the fan.

 

[Smoking Man]

Wow if you believe everything you hear, I have some Dornier Prop Wash that I will sell you for a good price.

I don't even know where to start with this so here goes.

If you bother to do some checking, as part of the re approval of the ASTB loan from the origonal default on the loan, starting on June 30th to Nov 05 U has some very exact goals that they must meet in order not to default on the loan again. So U does not have the time (proving runs, training) or the $ (cost to do another program) for the rj's to go anywhere else. Also it costs U 8% more for MESA to do the same flight than it does PSA, (we make more money). The 70 seaters at PSA would make the most due to the fact that it is all express employees. Unlike MidAtlantic, you have mainline gate agents, FA's, MX, etc, higher cost structure.

What you are hearing is IMHO garbage for the weak minded to get scared and give in. Note if PSA agrees to all of the garbage on the hotline all articles of LOA 91 an agreement between U mgt, and U alpa will be solved. If it is down to PSA to save U it is over anyway.

You decide for yourself, if the hotline was indeed critical, why is it out before a holiday weekend, and to the public? If it was truly urgent etc, do you think it would be in talks behind closed doors or out in the public for everyone?

Believe what you want but you just Drank the Kool-Aid!

 

[N93]

Actually you have a few points you need to bone up on. All employees at mid Atlantic are working under mirror agreements at AE not just the pilots. The cact that mainline pilots do noct carry any longevity means they will have far lower costs that the equipment being glown elsewhere. If you are in the know you it suprises me that you don't know that little factoid.

The 8% premium being paid to MESA would easily be offset by deleveraging the balance sheet and future capital expenditure associated with buying the aircraft. It's a tradeoff and a number crunchers game. The will still recieve the feed and revenue.

Currently there are 4 CRJ 701's in service at PSA and likely no more by NOV 5. There must be a seniority provison for the J4J guys by Aug 12 and it is unlikely to happen.

Neither you or I no what the exact tolerances are for meeting the ATSB goal between now and NOV 5. IF Ashby know, he isn't likely to divulge it. Certainly the 4 CRJ701's are unlikly to make the difference one way or the other. The piss poor operational performance of PSA is costing UAIR far more than not getting another few 70 seat RJ's into service by NOV 5. UAIR could easily add an additional 4 EMB 170's to what is already planned and perhaps more.

 

[328dude]

I'm going to have to agree with N93 on this Smoking man. U managment will probably pull the airplanes. However, as stated before, they can have them if they want to take away our senority.

 

[N93]

I'm going to have to agree with N93 on this Smoking man. U managment will probably pull the airplanes. However, as stated before, they can have them if they want to take away our senority.

I agree and it would suck to be one of the bottom 100 or 150 PSA pilots. It wouldn't suprise me if the 50 seat deliveries are halted. All we will have done is replace the Dornier's and with the 100 J4J guys there will be some surplus pilots. I think it also guarantees the eventual sell off to MESA. It's sad because the J4J guys will go their merry way laughing as they leave their filler job and the joke that PSA is and PSA will stagnate. guys who were going to upgrade with growth wont as J4J guys fill Captain slots and junior guys get furloughed but all wil be better off seniority wise??? A few senior guys will enjoy 90 bucks an hour but it will be dog food for the majority. It looks like Allegheny and Piedmont guys are going to end up better off except for a few senior here after all as they go the way of Mid Atlantic.