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SWA to speed up Airtran integration.....article

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freightdogfred said:
That's some funny stuff right there. Since you're a pretty big fan of TB, why don't you tell that to some US Air crews next time you pass thru KCLT. Tell them what a big fan you are, and what a great job he did over here, right before he bailed into the first train outta here, as he did in CLT. Then duck, because one of those guys might hit you in the mouth.
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First of all most USAir pilots could not rip a wet paper bag.

Second, TB gave 100 percent and pushed more than anyone else I know would against SWA .
 
freightdogfred said:
That's some funny stuff right there. Since you're a pretty big fan of TB, why don't you tell that to some US Air crews next time you pass thru KCLT. Tell them what a big fan you are, and what a great job he did over here, right before he bailed into the first train outta here, as he did in CLT. Then duck, because one of those guys might hit you in the mouth.
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While I disagree wholeheartedly with TB's conclusions about our situation in the SLI, I never pass up an opportunity to defend him. Yes, even to the face of a USAirways East guy. Haven't been "hit in the mouth" yet for it, but I'll take the punch if I have to. He's worked his ass off for most of his career helping pilots, and those USAirways guys have TB to thank for the fact that they even have jobs at all. If not for his willingness to make a very difficult call that he knew would make him unpopular, that airline would have liquidated.
 
Maybe. Go check out Delta's latest annual report. Their pension plan is underfunded by about $11B. Delta is telling Wall St they expect 9% return on their assets in the plan. My guess is they won't get 9% with Bernanke driving down interest rates. At some point, Delta will have to increase their contribution to the pension plan or declare bankruptcy again to get rid of it. If I remember right, Delta is putting in about $700 million per year over the past few years.
 
maxblast72 said:
Maybe. Go check out Delta's latest annual report. Their pension plan is underfunded by about $11B. Delta is telling Wall St they expect 9% return on their assets in the plan. My guess is they won't get 9% with Bernanke driving down interest rates. At some point, Delta will have to increase their contribution to the pension plan or declare bankruptcy again to get rid of it. If I remember right, Delta is putting in about $700 million per year over the past few years.
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Delta made $2.5 billion in ancillary revenue last year alone. (SWA made $1.1 Bllion). I think they can afford it.


Bye Bye---General Lee
 
General Lee said:
Delta made $2.5 billion in ancillary revenue last year alone. (SWA made $1.1 Bllion). I think they can afford it.


Bye Bye---General Lee
Click to expand...
Delta Airlines:

$13 billion total debt
$11 billion in underfunded pension plans
$623 million in interest costs in 2012 (through Q3)
$700 million in annual pension plan contributions

$1.8 billion operating profit in 2012 (through Q3)
Still running a stockholder deficit

Southwest Airlines:

$3 billion in total debt
$0 billion in underfunded pension plans
$112 million in interest expense in 2012 (through Q3)
$0 in annual pension plan contributions

$532 million operating profit (through Q3)
$7.0 billion in stockholder equity

General, there is a reason the S&P rates Southwest Airlines with a "BBB" credit rating while only rating Delta a "B-". You better hope Bernanke and the ECB continue to print trillions of dollars or the international yields that generate the bulk of Delta's profits will dry up pretty fast (making those debt and pension obligations feel like an 800 lb chain around Delta's neck).
 
maxblast72 said:
Delta Airlines:

$13 billion total debt
$11 billion in underfunded pension plans
$623 million in interest costs in 2012 (through Q3)
$700 million in annual pension plan contributions

$1.8 billion operating profit in 2012 (through Q3)
Still running a stockholder deficit

Southwest Airlines:

$3 billion in total debt
$0 billion in underfunded pension plans
$112 million in interest expense in 2012 (through Q3)
$0 in annual pension plan contributions

$532 million operating profit (through Q3)
$7.0 billion in stockholder equity

General, there is a reason the S&P rates Southwest Airlines with a "BBB" credit rating while only rating Delta a "B-". You better hope Bernanke and the ECB continue to print trillions of dollars or the international yields that generate the bulk of Delta's profits will dry up pretty fast (making those debt and pension obligations feel like an 800 lb chain around Delta's neck).
Click to expand...

Max,


The debt is being cleaned up by over $2 billion per year over the last 4 years, from $18 billion a few years ago to $10 billion by the end of this year, and then a savings of $500 million per year in interest alone. With that type of revenue and profits coming in, the outlook still looks good. If your finances are as good as you say and show, then I am sure GK will not ask for any givebacks. If he does, show him this post. I hope you are right. ;)


Bye Bye---General Lee
 
General Lee said:
Max,


The debt is being cleaned up by over $2 billion per year over the last 4 years, from $18 billion a few years ago to $10 billion by the end of this year, and then a savings of $500 million per year in interest alone. With that type of revenue and profits coming in, the outlook still looks good. If your finances are as good as you say and show, then I am sure GK will not ask for any givebacks. If he does, show him this post. I hope you are right. ;)


Bye Bye---General Lee
Click to expand...
There is no doubt Delta is doing much better today than 5 years ago. Delta had a productive trip through bankruptcy and did a great job of integrating Northwest quickly and efficiently. Luckily, as a current AirTran BRJ Captain, I never have to worry about a standalone AirTran competing with the "new" Delta.

However, Delta still has a significant debt load (which generates signficant interest expense to service) and a signficant (and growing) underfunded pension liability. So far, the richest 20% in this country are still spending as Bernanke continues to print trillions and Geithner continues to borrow trillions. As long as the richest 20% in this country keep spending, Delta will have enough profitability to service their debt and keep funding their pension plans. If the US goes into a recession (similar to southern Europe), Delta could struggle under the weight of these obligations.

I expect Gary Kelly to ask SWAPA for concession. I expect SWAPA to smile and say the numbers don't justify concessions Mr. Kelly. I don't mind if Kelly and SWAPA agree to get rid of cartels and some of the "soft" pay that occurs now. I am not expecting much of hard raise but rather some increased profit sharing formula or stock options. Some of the best performing companies in the country have performance based pay.
 
maxblast72 said:
I expect Gary Kelly to ask SWAPA for concession. I expect SWAPA to smile and say the numbers don't justify concessions Mr. Kelly. I don't mind if Kelly and SWAPA agree to get rid of cartels and some of the "soft" pay that occurs now. I am not expecting much of hard raise but rather some increased profit sharing formula or stock options. Some of the best performing companies in the country have performance based pay.
Click to expand...



Wow. This is the guy AirTran had fighting for their seniority? You just gave General Lee all the stats on how great southwest was doing and here you have a very defeatist attitude of not expecting a raise and you are ok with getting rid of soft pay. Soft pay at tends to mean QOL. You never give away that or work rules. You will never get them back and you basically are handing them back to management in exchange for what? Not much of a raise? POSSIBLE profit sharing?. I can see why AirTran pilots are in the position they are in.
 
One of the reasons that DL/NW merged so quickly was WORLDSPAN. Both airlines were using same computer reservations system. Look at the problems WN/FL and UA/CO are having due to inferior reservations system. Wait and see what happens when US/AA make the announcement to merge. US Airways is using Shares which CO had. When CO/UA merged UA decided to move over to Shares. If Parker does not switch over from Shares that merger will be a total mess.
 
General Lee said:
Max,


The debt is being cleaned up by over $2 billion per year over the last 4 years, from $18 billion a few years ago to $10 billion by the end of this year, and then a savings of $500 million per year in interest alone. With that type of revenue and profits coming in, the outlook still looks good. If your finances are as good as you say and show, then I am sure GK will not ask for any givebacks. If he does, show him this post. I hope you are right. ;)


Bye Bye---General Lee
Click to expand...

General, you have to understand that you're talking to the guy who engineered the biggest seniority giveaway in airline history. He has to make believe that everything will be roses and sunshine to even begin to justify it.
 
Kenney G said:
Wow. This is the guy AirTran had fighting for their seniority? You just gave General Lee all the stats on how great southwest was doing and here you have a very defeatist attitude of not expecting a raise and you are ok with getting rid of soft pay. Soft pay at tends to mean QOL. You never give away that or work rules. You will never get them back and you basically are handing them back to management in exchange for what? Not much of a raise? POSSIBLE profit sharing?.
Click to expand...
You need to reread my post Kenny G.

"Hard" raise = pay rates
"Soft" raise = change in profit sharing formulas or stock options

If Gary Kelly pulls a $800-900 million net profit this year, your dam right we deserve a good chunk of that. Couple thousands share of LUV vested over time would work. That would probably reduce the number of Captains at AirTran that want to slow play the system.

I never said get rid of all "soft" time. I just said some of the extreme cases. PCL128, you gave the company (AirTran) back the URP credit in Contract 2010 and got something else in return. I find no fault with that.
 
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PCL_128 said:
General, you have to understand that you're talking to the guy who engineered the biggest seniority giveaway in airline history. He has to make believe that everything will be roses and sunshine to even begin to justify it.
Click to expand...
General, you have to understand that you are talking to the guy who supports ALPA no matter what even if it runs all the ALPA majors into bankruptcy at one point or another :)
 
slaquer5 said:
First of all most USAir pilots could not rip a wet paper bag.

Second, TB gave 100 percent and pushed more than anyone else I know would against SWA .
Click to expand...

By this statement, you admire his tenacity and ability. As evidenced by his service at two prior employments, I would expect his desire to continue his service as a career politician will continue. Perhaps with your support, and others so like-minded, his installment in a position of prominence at SWAPA will effect similar large gains such as those he has secured at his two previous tenures.
 
maxblast72 said:
I don't mind if Kelly and SWAPA agree to get rid of cartels and some of the "soft" pay that occurs now. I am not expecting much of hard raise but rather some increased profit sharing formula or stock options. Some of the best performing companies in the country have performance based pay.
Click to expand...

That is called playing "not to lose." When you play that way, you never win. I guess that is why FL lost...a lot.

Phred
 
freightdogfred said:
By this statement, you admire his tenacity and ability. As evidenced by his service at two prior employments, I would expect his desire to continue his service as a career politician will continue. Perhaps with your support, and others so like-minded, his installment in a position of prominence at SWAPA will effect similar large gains such as those he has secured at his two previous tenures.
Click to expand...


I would vote for him in a New York second.
 
Kenney G said:
Wow. This is the guy AirTran had fighting for their seniority? You just gave General Lee all the stats on how great southwest was doing and here you have a very defeatist attitude of not expecting a raise and you are ok with getting rid of soft pay. Soft pay at tends to mean QOL. You never give away that or work rules. You will never get them back and you basically are handing them back to management in exchange for what? Not much of a raise? POSSIBLE profit sharing?. I can see why AirTran pilots are in the position they are in.
Click to expand...

You got it Kenney. See how big of an imbecile this ******************************bag is. See max is one of those idiots that really believes that he is the smartest person in the room and doesn't realize that he is the biggest joke to the AirTran pilots. He made a comment a few posts back saying that someone on the mc made a comment about TO and called him the mound of sound or something... what max doesn't know is that to every AirTran pilot he is known as the tall goofy lookin doofus from Pit. That's you isn't it max? Actually I think Gary Kelly made up that name for him. How someone from the mec would even think that this jackoff or any of the other idiots on the mc could have even remotely taken on sw or swapa is beyond me. I really feel for the guys that have to fly with this guy, because he probably re-hashes his version of the story over and over again and all the while making himself out to be the hero. Just like he used to on our forum, until he basically got enough backlash from the AirTran guys that the mec had to pull his account. You can see it on here. Taunt him enough and he folds like a bad poker hand. Swapa used that and him to their full advantage. Hey max or Rich or whatever your name is. Give it a rest dude. There are no heroes on a merger committee. Just doesn't work that way. And stop telling your stories to the guys you fly with. They don't care and more than likely wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire. Have a nice day.
 
It looks like I can count on your vote if I decide to run for interim CA rep in ATL when JS or JG cross the partition.

BTW, the MEC pulled my forum privileges for a month for my second post about the events of July 13th, 2011 at the Dallas Renaissance. Amazing you won't post like that on the AirTran forum but only behind an anonymous screen name. Go figure.
 
You gonna try the capt rep thing again huh? Yeah good luck with that. You have about as much credibility as North Korea. I do post like that about you on the forum idiot. Try reading some of the posts. Although it has been quiet for a while since you have been off of it, but as you say since you have your privileges back I'm sure it's only a matter of days, no hours, before you get on there with something so stupid and defeatist that people pounce on you again and show what you're really made of. And as far as being suspended from the forum for a post about events in Dallas.. Suuuuure......... yeah that's why... You sure it wasn't for the fact that so many people on the forum just kept egging you on that you finally snapped and threatened someone and alpa wanted to distance themselves from you.
As I said. Stop thinking you're the smartest person in the room and stop trying to make yourself into a hero. You ain't. Enough with the sli stuff already. It's done. Oh and by the way. as far as the anonymous screen name stuff goes, you know exactly who I am. I am every AirTran pilot that thinks the same thing about you every time our paths cross. Look at my post above about what people really think about you. We're just smiling at you and acknowledging you out of politeness. Guess what we're really thinking behind our smiles? See you in the crew room.
 
I was just reviewing some emails/paperwork as I was working on document generation for the discovery phase of the DFR lawsuit and came across some interesting quotes. I got a $50 Southwest gift card for the first person who correctly identifies the author of the following quotes:

Quote #1 from an email in September 2011:

"Another way of saying this, in aviation terms; the MEC chose to fly the MDW ILS 31C to a landing in a blizzard, with weather minimums below minimums and braking action "poor". They did it without asking the passengers if they'd like to risk the landing or proceed to the alternate, which was safe. Even worse, they told the passengers the weather was fine."

Quote #2 from the AirTran forum (August 2011):

"As for whether or the attorneys advised the MEC to send this out, I think you'd have to be friggin deaf to claim that they didn't. Did they say "you must send this out?" No. Attorney's wouldn't do that. Did they make it clear that not sending it out held significantly more risk than not sending it out? Yes. Were they more explicit than that? At times, yes. Was Todd on any of those calls? No. All three said the same thing, even Todd's beloved ALPA attorneys."


First hint, the author of the above 2 quotes was not an ATN MEC member or committee member on August 18, 2011. I think there are going to be some shocked people when the author of the above quotes is revealed. More hints to follow if no one can guess the author.
 
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717capt,

You are a minority. Sorry. But most people wanted a chance to vote on the first deal. I would have preferred SWAPA to vote it down.
 

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