US Airway news - not good

[rjcap]

Gen Lee,

What are the stipulations for pilots to elect early retirment?

What is the lead time to take early retirment. i.e. submitting paper work etc. ?

 

[WrightAvia]

HEY ARENT YOU GUYS LISTENING TO ZIGY

It's a sensitive issue, you could put someone over the edge talking about this stuff. I mean after all, these guys are trusted with multi million dollar planes and hundreds of lives. They even used that fact to argue having GUNS in the cockpit...so be nice and talk about nice things. Don't get any body over the edge by talking about current events or financial news on this pilots bulletin board.

 

[blzr]

General Lee

On the contrary, I think Airways is going to be just fine. All the other majors WILL have to go through restructuring at some point. We'll be out of this mess by summer if all goes as planned, and watch from the sidelines while the others go through the same thing. Hopefully yall have taken notes on how management has played us, and can come up with a better defense.

 

[WhiteCloud]

Re: HEY ARENT YOU GUYS LISTENING TO ZIGY

It's a sensitive issue, you could put someone over the edge talking about this stuff. I mean after all, these guys are trusted with multi million dollar planes and hundreds of lives. They even used that fact to argue having GUNS in the cockpit...so be nice and talk about nice things. Don't get any body over the edge by talking about current events or financial news on this pilots bulletin board.

You must have misunderstood my post. Talking about current events is what this place is all about. Asking if "anyone knows a good sniper for hire" and "I hope someone gets the bastard" is not. Pilots are not immune from going over the edge and a 30 year retiree with a stolen pension and a gun can be a real life issue. Not just careless talk on a pilot forum. Those type of comments did stop after my post and the conversation got back on track about issues and news. I think/hope they did listen. Ziggy1

 

[blzr]

Somebody help me out here. Did ALPA really negotiate in secret with US AIR management and agree on pention termination? If that is so, sounds rather underhanded. It was in a blurb in the MONEY section of the USA TODAY. Any union people got any info on this?

 

[HA25]

If its between jobs at 1/2 their wages, or keeping their pention.. I wonder which one they'll take?

I'll bet a lot of those senior guys at UslessAir will want to take their pention and run... God Speed.

 

[LearLove]

from us daily

******** U S A I R W A Y S T O D A Y ********

Monday, March 3, 2003

1/A Special Bulletin Saturday evening reported a
decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Stephen
Mitchell that US Airways has met the financial
standards for a distress termination of the defined
benefit pension plan for its pilots. In response to
Judge Mitchell's decision, President and CEO Dave
Siegel said that US Airways and representatives of ALPA
should begin immediate negotiations. "The company
remains committed to providing $850 million over the
next seven years to fund a new pension plan for our
active pilots," said Siegel. "We have taken the
steps to terminate the existing plan only after we had
exhausted all other alternatives. But as we
demonstrated to the court over four days of testimony,
we cannot meet the financial obligations of the
existing plan and emerge from bankruptcy protection
without taking the action."

Siegel reiterated comments from his testimony in court
on Friday when he said that the airline's pilots had
shown tremendous leadership and sacrifice throughout
the company's restructuring process. "We regret the
impact that the plan termination will have on our
pilots but the ultimate goal must be to save this
airline and the jobs of almost 35,000 dedicated
employees. We respect ALPA's efforts to represent the
interests of its members and believe we can find a
mutually achieved solution to implement a new pension
plan." Please see the Special Bulletin for more
details.

2/The Department of Transportation has released its
March Air Travel Consumer Report, which contains
January 2003 statistics for ten major U.S. carriers.
US Airways ranked fifth in consumer complaints for
January 2003 with 1.20 complaints per 100,000
enplanements, and was equivalent to its January 2002
ranking. US Airways' January 2003 seventh-place ontime
performance ranking of 82.1 percent, which reflected
the impact of this winter's extreme weather conditions,
was slightly below the January 2002 level. US Airways'
3.95 percent fourth-place finish for number of
mishandled baggage in January 2003, was just below the
January 2002 level. Denied boarding statistics fell
slightly from last year to a January 2003 fifth-place
ranking at .66 percent per 10,000 passengers.

 

[Flying Freddie]

I paid ALPA dues for years and when I was out of work the support stopped. I found out the errors of false pride. That is why I am jerking gear today. Never will I pay ALPA another cent. Hasta La Vista baby!

 

[mobs]

ALPA is fighting this very hard. We will know more after the arbitration starts on the 13th Mar.

 

[hateairlines]

I find it ironic that a SWA/FO posts this-SWA being the one major airline in the world that is to cheap to even have a pension plan????????

 

[HA25]

I find it ironic that a SWA/FO posts this-SWA being the one major airline in the world that is to cheap to even have a pension plan????????

And what a lot of people don't understand, is that it only takes one airline to be cheap and the rest will have a hell of a time competing...

 

[Ty Webb]

And what a lot of people don't understand, is that it only takes one airline to be cheap and the rest will have a hell of a time competing...

Sounds kind of socialistic.

Please tell what airline employs a man such as yourself. I am sure we can find fault with soemthing they are doing, or not doing, too.

 

[HA25]

Sounds kind of socialistic.

Please tell what airline employs a man such as yourself. I am sure we can find fault with soemthing they are doing, or not doing, too.

You totally lost me.

What part of my statement above is socialistic... With an MBA in Business and a degree in Economics, I missed that lesson...

As for my "airline" it's, short answer is..

Ex-ASA
Furloughed American
Current Corporate CE560
(A good friend of mine and former pilot with us used to fly for Airtran, his last name was also Webb)

 

[HA25]

wait, wait, let me preempt a debate...

I'll explain my statement up front:

Airline A, B, C, and D all have x, y, z as expenses. Airlines A,B & C all also have an additional expense, we'll call it p (for pension).

Now if airline D starts to fly into the markets that airlines A, B, and C fly but at a cost of labor that is reduce by dollar amount "p", they are in fact able to make an additional profit equal to airlines A, B, and C, or if they want to be smart, they will fly at the same rate and make additional profits which we can call Delta "p"...

Thus airline D is more profitable and is able to have a higher stock price and therefore better access to capital to keep themselves in business.

Do you get it?

 

[46Driver]

I think I am going to buy stock in airline "D"......