Rumors Fly Over Fate of Midwest Planes

[Donsa320]

You talking about the same management team that the Midwest MEC couldn't wait to just stand behind 18 months ago?

I have a comment. I have many friends at Midwest and have followed the events closely. At the time of the possible AAI merger many comments here on FI were; staple the Midex guys or ratio them in but reserve all the captain upgrades for the next 60 to 90 737 airplane deliveries for former AAI pilots (that one came from your beloved Lear70) to any variety of schemes that would devalue Midex pilots' seniority.
No wonder they did not want anything to do with you.
My lineage is; North Central, Republic, Northwest with fair mergers in each case. Some Northwest guys/gals might disagree but it was quite fair IMHO.
If cooler heads would have prevailed I believe a very worth while merger would have occurred and AAI would have a lot less competition here in MKE with your new summer schedule. Time will tell now.

 

[Propsync]

I have a comment. I have many friends at Midwest and have followed the events closely. At the time of the possible AAI merger many comments here on FI were; staple the Midex guys or ratio them in but reserve all the captain upgrades for the next 60 to 90 737 airplane deliveries for former AAI pilots (that one came from your beloved Lear70) to any variety of schemes that would devalue Midex pilots' seniority.
No wonder they did not want anything to do with you.

I don't know Donsa. At what point would you say to heck with integration and just let me have a seniority number? Trust Midwest or lose some career progression? At the time, I don't know why or how they sided with management.

At this point, a merger still would have likely led to furloughs, for sake of what the economic climate was. The difference would be that the Midwest pilots would have something to go back to.

 

[deadstick]

Wouldn't AAI really be hurting now if they had paid that high price for Midex?

 

[B-J-J Fighter]

I don't know Donsa. At what point would you say to heck with integration and just let me have a seniority number? Trust Midwest or lose some career progression? At the time, I don't know why or how they sided with management.

At this point, a merger still would have likely led to furloughs, for sake of what the economic climate was. The difference would be that the Midwest pilots would have something to go back to.

I would think it's better to have a job as an AAI FO than no job at all. I bet it still pays more than unemployment. I have ridden Maxblast72's jumpseat in the past this summer out of MCO. I have to agree with him, it's makes you wonder about the the MEH guys overall decision making. Are they fit to be captains for any airline??????

Just for the record I don't work for AAI although I would like too.

 

[Colonel Savage]

Wouldn't AAI really be hurting now if they had paid that high price for Midex?

No doubt about it, and don't forget soaring fuel and economic collapse. That and the leveraged balance sheet and it might have been over before it really got started.

Remember, TPG came along and offered $17/share for MDX against $12/share from AAI, so Timmay had to take the TPG offer (public company). After that, near as I can figure, the fuel soars/economy collapses, so TPG sees the mistake it made, and tightens the screws on Timmay. Outsourcing begins in ernest, and the $hIt hits the fan.

 

[CitationLover]

I would think it's better to have a job as an AAI FO than no job at all. I bet it still pays more than unemployment. I have ridden Maxblast72's jumpseat in the past this summer out of MCO. I have to agree with him, it's makes you wonder about the the MEH guys overall decision making. Are they fit to be captains for any airline??????

You people act like what our MEC does makes a difference in terms of how the Midwest Board of Directors is going to act on a takeover bid?

Air Tran is putting these airplanes in MKE because they have nowhere else to put them and Timmy basically allowed them to reenter a weak market. Need proof? In an almost depressionary economy, they are adding routes to a tourist driven private airport when the last thing on peoples minds these days is a vacation to Branson.

Sitting on an ivory tower and saying "I told you so" is all maxblast can do. I feel sorry for the FO's who fly with him.

 

[Propsync]

You people act like what our MEC does makes a difference in terms of how the Midwest Board of Directors is going to act on a takeover bid?

Why not? Midwest touts the best care something. That was gone when meal service ended. They sold a line of crap for six plus years and it worked for those that believed it. If the MEC and the rest didn't have such a classic case of Stockholm syndrome maybe the outcome would have been different.

 

[maxblast72]

Air Tran is putting these airplanes in MKE because they have nowhere else to put them and Timmy basically allowed them to reenter a weak market. Need proof? In an almost depressionary economy, they are adding routes to a tourist driven private airport when the last thing on peoples minds these days is a vacation to Branson.

Dude, you have no clue. We are actually supposed to shrink 2 airplanes during 2009 (4 deliveries and 6 to be sold as of January 2009). It is not an issue of forcing growth somewhere because we are growing so fast. Airtran 2009 ASM are projected to be down 4% from 2008 levels. We are shrinking ATL a little and shifting flights to MKE and BWI, two markets where unit revenue performance is doing really well.

As for Branson, that is going to be one flight a day out of MKE. The rest of the stuff we are going to do out of MKE involves large business cities like LAX, SFO, SEA, SAN, LAS, PHX, BOS, LGA, DCA, MSP, STL, BWI, DEN, and ATL. Between originating traffic from MKE plus all the connections possibilities from those 13 cities, I am sure we can keep our airplanes full enough in this economic environment.

And if you are worrying about our 1 flight a day to Branson bankrupting Airtran, I am sure the city is guaranteeing a certain amount of revenue as they realize the benefit of having low fare service to their resort destination.

 

[maxblast72]

Sitting on an ivory tower and saying "I told you so" is all maxblast can do. I feel sorry for the FO's who fly with him.

You have to take the emotional connection away from the thought process and look at things from the business sense. I have been around enough emotional people telling me how great TWA, Eastern, America West, and Midwest used to be.

I used to work at Express One International and loved the company and work schedule (6 nights on, 8 nights off). We had a real stable long term contract with the USPS. Then in 2001, Fred Smith offered the USPS space on his airplanes so the USPS didn't have to run their own fleet of contracted 727's. We all lost our jobs and Fedex didn't hire any of us. Was I upset with Fedex. No, it was just a business decision by the USPS to user the cheaper, more reliable lift that Fedex could provide. You have to move on instead of dwelling on the past.

But you do have to study the past to see what mistakes were made. Midwest continued to lose money in 2005 and 2006 as most airlines were turning the corner. Midwest had no new airplanes on order. Then, Midwest starting using 50 seat aircraft as a way of growing MEH. Based on these facts, the Midwest MEC decided to have a vote of confidence on the great Timmy H and the junior guys never tried to recall the senior guys that were screwing their careers. Yeah, there might have been a few radical guys on here saying staple MEH pilots but that never wouldn't have happened. That is not to say that Midwest might have got the worse end of an integration but still would have had better career expectations in the long run.

 

[eightdriver]

I would think it's better to have a job as an AAI FO than no job at all. I bet it still pays more than unemployment. I have ridden Maxblast72's jumpseat in the past this summer out of MCO. I have to agree with him, it's makes you wonder about the the MEH guys overall decision making. Are they fit to be captains for any airline??????

Just for the record I don't work for AAI although I would like too.

Another bull$hit comment by RJ puke... So your telling me that because of our MEC deciding to believe in Tims plan. Suddenly our Captains might not be fit to fly??? Are you F'ing nuts!! Go back to flight school a$$hole. It because of people like you that the industry is rotting from the inside out.

P.S I see you have 3500 hours, so you must be a fairly senior rj captain....pathetic.