GuppyWN
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2005
- Posts
- 3,204
I was on the ATA Negotiating Committee during bankruptcy and the first deal floated from FL had the ATA pilots flying in caretaker status as the aircraft were transferred to the FL certificate. We would have gone from 1200+ pilots to zero in 18 months. There was never any stated consideration to offer the ATA pilots anything but the door while this occurred.
The ATA ALPA pilots took it upon themselves to approach America West and work out a deal. We had the whole thing tied up with final signatures by all parties, when word of the Continental deal for our 757-300's (brokered by our "friends" at SWA) broke and scuttled the whole deal. The rest is history and SWA ended up getting exactly what they wanted in the bankruptcy auction.
I got hired at FL after being on the street for six months without any known consideration for being a former ATA pilot. If the original FL deal had prevailed there might have been some hiring consideration, but the was none floated at the time and statements by some FL pilots at the time were far worse than any of the self-entitled crap I've heard in the current FL/SWA situation.
That's unfortunate all around.
Gup