Question for Astar pilots

[UPSer]

Did Astar bid on any of this? It sure seems like that DHL prefers ABX over Astar with ABX being awarded the two west coast shuttles and now this. Any rumors or thoughts that DHL might grow ABX to the point that they might not need Astar anymore?

My contacts at ABX tell me that DHL management has told them that they are not too happy with Astar's operational performance and high fuel burns. They also tell me DHL is not happy that Astar is only Cat I. Any idea on if Astar plans to uprgrade to a higher Cat capability since DHL is going to uprade ILN to Cat III?

I'm not trying to flame anyone at Astar and certainly hope that everything goes well for your group, I'm just trying to find out if my ABX contacts are drinking too much yellow koolaid from the Krauts.

 

[AV8OR]

UPSer,

Who the he** knows?

What we know is this.

Thus far their has been no increase in ABX flying. There has been no increase in AStar flying.

There has been no announcement for either a fleet increase or upgrade for ABX. There has been no announcement for either a fleet increase or upgrade for AStar.

Fuel burn? You gotta be kidding me. Anybody want to post the burn per hour on one of those Straight 8's? It's roughly 10K/hr on a -73 running at .82 avg. And while the 72's have three JT8's and the 9's have only two, how many 9's does it take to carry a load on a 727-200? I don't know? Anyone? Anyone?

Performance. This performance BS going around. Let's see. I got a bonus check for around $250.00 a couple of mnonths ago, which was a voluntary distribution (read: fell outside our contract) and my cut of a performance bonus given to AStar by DHL.

The bottom line is DHL can do what they dang well please at this point with either airline. Unless we win a something on scope, that'll be the way it is. While there may be pro's and con's to running either airline, the one big con to shutting down AStar would be having to pay Dasburg 15mill/year for the remainder of the ACMI, for nothing. Of course, since they just pi$$ed away $200mill on a hub they're not going to use, maybe that's just chump change em.

I'm waiting for an announcement that ABX is buying aircraft for spooling or re-tooling. If that happens, it may be time to start polishing the resume or start shoeing some horses. Till then, I'm gonna kick back, relax, pay attention, and bust the crap outta some doves this weekend. Oh yeah. War Eagle!

Sure picked the wrong year to stop sniffing glue.

 

[steamgauge]

Who knows...

Did Astar bid on any of this? It sure seems like that DHL prefers ABX over Astar with ABX being awarded the two west coast shuttles and now this. Any rumors or thoughts that DHL might grow ABX to the point that they might not need Astar anymore?

I believe we did. We were led to believe we would be doing it. I think it came down to who had the airplanes where they were needed when they were needed. We don't have many west coast trips with 72s in the cities they needed. No one knows what DHL will do. We still have a couple of 72s coming and there have been inquiries about more cargo door slots for next year. There's your rumor.

My contacts at ABX tell me that DHL management has told them that they are not too happy with Astar's operational performance and high fuel burns. They also tell me DHL is not happy that Astar is only Cat I. Any idea on if Astar plans to uprgrade to a higher Cat capability since DHL is going to uprade ILN to Cat III?

Looking at ABX's 10-Q, their operational performance doesn't appear to be better than ours when you run the numbers. But, yeah, they've been giving us the performance bonuses and I got mine. Last time I looked we were 100% so far this month (I've been off for a couple of days). I've never seen more than 0.2% less than target for a day or so and almost always better than the years before when DHL owned us. They update the stats every day.

DHL never wanted to run an airline. They thought of us as big delivery vans (remember the old commercials?) and cut a lot of corners (spares, upgrades, contractors, etc.). Now their decisions are coming back to bite us occasionally. But it's getting fixed, I think. At least it appears they're trying to identify problems.

It would be ironic if DHL was upset about the Cat-I issue since they're the ones who ripped out all the equipment when they owned us and refuse(d) to pay for anything that is not mandated by FARs.

High fuel burns? They (DHL) cut the block times and told us to go fast because CVG is regularly late. Simple as that. When they start consolidating routes and replacing 2 DC-9s with a 727, then the situation goes the other way. No one has ever said a thing about fuel burns to us. Ever.

I'm not trying to flame anyone at Astar and certainly hope that everything goes well for your group, I'm just trying to find out if my ABX contacts are drinking too much yellow koolaid from the Krauts.

I don't see it as a flame. ABX has been on a roll lately from a certain perspective. I've played enough craps to know....

 

[LarryinTN]

Thus far their has been no increase in ABX flying. There has been no increase in AStar flying.

That's not completely correct.

ABX has picked up the PDX-BFI-SFO-LAX-SLC-BOI-SLC-LAX-SFO-BFI-PDX shuttle. ABX has upgraded their SJU service from the DC9 to the 767. ABX lost TPA-ILN-TPA.

ASTAR has picked up TPA-ILN-TPA. ASTAR lost SJU-CVG-SJU.

Have there been any other additions or losses?

 

[T-Gates]

ASTAR has picked up TPA-ILN-TPA.

ASTAR planes are already going into ILN? Or is this just a future change of flying?

 

[steamgauge]

That's not completely correct.

ABX has picked up the PDX-BFI-SFO-LAX-SLC-BOI-SLC-LAX-SFO-BFI-PDX shuttle. ABX has upgraded their SJU service from the DC9 to the 767. ABX lost TPA-ILN-TPA.

ASTAR has picked up TPA-ILN-TPA. ASTAR lost SJU-CVG-SJU.

Have there been any other additions or losses?

The rumors change on a daily basis. There is some internal shuffling going on. But, as far as I know, that's about right.

For the record, though, we never flew the PDX->PDX runs (looking at that trip gives me a headache). It was a feeder run (below our scope MTOGW). So while we thought we would get it in the consolidation, it wasn't ours to lose.

It was Evergreen's to lose.

 

[steamgauge]

ASTAR planes are already going into ILN? Or is this just a future change of flying?

Starting next month, ABX comes to CVG and we go to ILN. It's in the bid package.

 

[S2B]

Hiring 1 in SEP?

A - ASTAR Air Cargo: 0/9/0. Hiring 1 in SEP. Accepting résumés by mail, email at [email protected], or fax to (859) 905-1512. All pilots hired as second-in-command...


Hiring 1? Any word on that?

From AirInc.

 

[LarryinTN]

ASTAR planes are already going into ILN? Or is this just a future change of flying?

It starts on October 2nd, I believe.

 

[LarryinTN]

looking at that trip gives me a headache

Actaully, those shuttle trips are pretty good, especially for our guys who live on the West Coast. Each trip lays over at PDX, LAX and BOI with most of the layovers being between 23hrs and 36hrs. Once per week the BOI layover is 82 hours.

All of the trips start and end with a deadhead on the 767 to/from PDX or LAX. The only short layovers are the layovers in PDX immediately before and after the 767 deadhead legs. Those layovers are just over 10 hours.

Here's one example trip which is an eight day trip which flies 13.29 block time that would pay 43.9 hours if flown as open flying or vacation buy back. (You can look up the pay rates on the excellent airline pilots pay web site)

WE DH767 ILN-PDX 0436-0613 10:33 Layover 6:07 Duty
WE PDX-BFI-SFO-LAX 1816-0048 23:25 Layover 8:02 Duty
FR LAX-SLC-BOI 0143-0745 81:45 Layover 6:32 Duty
MO BOI-SLC-LAX 1900-2339 23:51 Layover 7:09 Duty
WE LAX-SFO-BFI-PDX 0100-0709 10:11 Layover 7:39 Duty
WE DH767 PDX-ILN

Do that trip twice in a 31 day month and you're done for the month after flying only 26:58 block time. On a 30 day month you couldn't do that trip twice as we only work 15 days in a 30 day month.