I do not see how AE would be able to get the 100 seat rj flying (given the information below), but if it does happen, many of us that are furloughed from AA can forget about getting recalled for a LONG time. It is going to quite some time as it is, but if AE is able to steal this flying, many of us that are furloughed from AA can forget about ever going back to AA. It is a real shame to see what has happened (and what is happening) to the airline industry and the airline pilot profession in particular. I regret ever even getting into commercial aviation some eight years ago. I should have stayed in the military.
---100-Seat Aircraft
Another hotly debated and misunderstood subject is 51-seat and
greater aircraft. Prior to our latest agreement, APA operated
all flying of 71 seats and greater. American Eagle's ALPA pilots
operated anything of 70 seats or less.
During the discussions last spring that led to our latest
agreement, management wanted greater flexibility in their use of
commuter jets (aircraft with at least 45 but no more than 70
passenger seats).
Throughout the beginning of negotiations since July of 2001, one
of APA's primary objectives was to regain future 70-seat jets for
APA pilots. APA's Scope Committee, to their credit, had
predicted that a large percentage of future growth in U.S.
commercial aviation would most likely be in the 70- to 120-seat
jet range. Embraer was known to be developing a new jetliner
family of 70-110-seat aircraft, and even though they were still
in the planning stages, APA's objective was to ensure that any
agreement we reached would reclaim all aircraft of that capacity
for APA pilots.
In our latest agreement, we allowed management to have greater
flexibility with 50-seat jets in return for APA gaining rights to
ALL future aircraft of 51 seats or greater beyond American
Eagle's previously ordered 25 Canadair CRJ70s and 25 optioned
CRJ70s for a total of 50 airplanes. ANY other aircraft AMR
purchases with 51 seats or greater belong to APA pilots. Also,
in our agreement we have the right for APA pilots to fly all 50
of American Eagle's ordered and optioned CRJ70s if we can
negotiate an agreement with management to do so on a labor
cost-neutral basis.
Following the announcement of our agreement, our Scope
Committee's predictions came true, with both US Airways and
JetBlue announcing multi-billion-dollar orders for the new,
larger Embraer aircraft. More recently, Southwest Airlines
publicly expressed potential interest in acquiring Embraer
aircraft.
Unlike our previous agreement, APA pilots contractually own
51-plus-seat aircraft under our current agreement, with the
exception of the previously discussed CRJ70s. Since reaching our
agreement, we have had no discussions with management about a
100-seat aircraft or any other 51-plus-seat aircraft beyond one
brief comment. Management did mention during a meeting that
given Southwest's announcement and the orders that US Airways and
JetBlue had already placed, they would probably look into whether
a 100-seat airplane made sense to operate at American, but they
had no plans to acquire a 100-seat-sized aircraft at this time.
That was the only time management has brought the subject up and
APA has had no negotiations concerning acquiring a new aircraft
at American.
