What's happening at AVANTAIR?

[CaptainJaguar]

Glad to hear from WTF that there's a II on the property! Saw the Astra in the hangar last week.
As to the cash conservation discussions, generally just prior to 'Aquisitions/Mergers/Major expansions', many medium to large-ish businesses will freeze all cashflow in order to have as accurate a financial statement as possible. Saw this phenomenon repeatedly in the Ski industry, my last "lucrative" 20 year career.

One of these days I've got to give up on this "Year off from college" thing!

Well I hope your right, if there is a merger of some sort I just hope that it will be for the best. It's all about keeping the pilots happy. Pilots are the ones that matter the most in all of this. Why? well, if I have to answer this for you, then you're not a real pilot....

 

[fivefootnuthin]

hey all ...long time reader, 1st time poster haha
I'll say this ...i like my job, like the plane, made an investment in this place and I hope it turns out well. This money stuff is very disconcerning (assuming these stories have some truth to them, and im fearful they do) and sadly ...i've heard some others as well which add to my concern. Personally, i'm glad the big investor is gone if all he basically did was use this place for cash vaccuum, and I do hope the news at NBAA is good. It had better be, cause riding the planes and crews like they have, there IS a breaking point to be reached. But....continued hiring is a very good sign, as is the pending 7/7 ....so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. C'mon NBAA!!!

 

[Flybet3]

hey all ...long time reader, 1st time poster haha
I'll say this ...i like my job, like the plane, made an investment in this place and I hope it turns out well. This money stuff is very disconcerning (assuming these stories have some truth to them, and im fearful they do) and sadly ...i've heard some others as well which add to my concern. Personally, i'm glad the big investor is gone if all he basically did was use this place for cash vaccuum, and I do hope the news at NBAA is good. It had better be, cause riding the planes and crews like they have, there IS a breaking point to be reached. But....continued hiring is a very good sign, as is the pending 7/7 ....so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. C'mon NBAA!!!

Yeah, I think that Mr. R leaving was a good thing. I never had the "pleasure" of flying his wife, lucky me huh? Anyway, yeah I heard that this guy was costing the company more money than everything by giving away flights to his friends and using in like his personal limo. So I do hope things work out. 7/7 schedule is around the corner, everyone should've turned in their BID sheets this past friday. But like CaptJaguar said, there is something coming up that will either make or break this company. I heard that on the road this past week as well. I sure do hope that it will make...i dont wanna be part of any "breaking"

 

[P180puke]

I've spoken to several management types lately, and I am cautiously encouraged by what I've heard. Here is what I've put together from talking to these people. Yes, the major investor left and no one is missing him (or his wife!). It turns out he was costing Avantair lots of money by using us for a shuttle service for him and his friends/family and he wasn't paying for it. He was told to put up or shut up and he chose to leave. The company is now positioning itself financially for growth with other fleet types so they are doing everything they can to conserve cash in the short term until these new growth plans are put into motion. We are still hiring pilots every month. If we knew we were in a position where we could not continue to grow, why would we bring on new pilots each month? We are actually a little overstaffed right now and more new hires are still coming through the door. I guess the true indicator of all of this will be if we announce anything at NBAA next month.

Dilligaff

Agreed, I heard the same. And like hyper, I think I heard the same 2 possibilities. I too am not real comfortable though with the flops management crew, but I guess we'll wait and see.

 

[CaptainJaguar]

Agreed, I heard the same. And like hyper, I think I heard the same 2 possibilities. I too am not real comfortable though with the flops management crew, but I guess we'll wait and see.

But I thought FLOPS was having big problems too?

 

[Mr. Pebbles]

Well I hope your right, if there is a merger of some sort I just hope that it will be for the best. It's all about keeping the pilots happy. Pilots are the ones that matter the most in all of this. Why? well, if I have to answer this for you, then you're not a real pilot....

What all the folks out there have to realize is that Avantair has potential- but it needs to be taken over by good people. As long as the scumbags ( specifically one scumbag) who started the company have any control, the chance of success is limited.

 

[dime line]

What all the folks out there have to realize is that Avantair has potential- but it needs to be taken over by good people. As long as the scumbags ( specifically one scumbag) who started the company have any control, the chance of success is limited.


Well Crap....There goes the FLOPS/ AVANT merger rumor. We at FLOPS don't have any more good people, and most would call them scumbags, so the chance of this merger working would be slim to none, and slim is working at NetJets.

 

[Flybet3]

Come On Mbaa!!!!!

 

[fivefootnuthin]

I wonder ....couldnt Piaggio itself become an interest, much like Cessna did with Shares, Bombardier did with Exec, and so on? The kicker in all this is that guys love flying the plane, and the owners love it too...I dont think there's any question in that. I really dont know, but I think it's fair to say that things havent been handled too well with regard to the $$$'s, and that's clearly something that has to be corrected, regardless of who comes in.

 

[Noodles]

I think there's only one or two people inside Avantair that know what's truely going on, and they're not sharing that information. I do find it really interesting that a lot of management now is former FLOPS people. I know they announced large Piaggio orders at last years NBAA, but that was with the former investor. I have not heard if those orders or going to be kept or not.

No matter what happens, I know two people that will come out of this okay.

 

[Roma]

Without concrete facts announced or given out, all the information out there is biased and should not be taken seriously at all. Some piece of real infomation may get out, then depending on the attitude of the person that hears that info, they will spin it the way they want things to go (like fox news and GW). In aviation, eveyone worries about their job security, but worrying gets you no where. Our owners love these aircraft, and as long as they are happy and paying money, we will be flying them!

I have heard about the cell phone thing too. I came from a company that would make you send in a detailed summary to every number not in their network and a reason why you called outside of the network. They are a fortune 100 comany and very profitable. They just dont understand how to talk to people, or I would still be there. If your using your phone for the right reason (business), then you should not go over the minutes and you wont get a letter for management asking why you did. It only takes 1 person to ruin tings for everyone else. We are all here to make money, right? How can a company be profitable, and make money, when they are footing the bill for a handfull of rouge employees who dont want to follow the contract they signed! They shouldn't! Avantair is doing the right thing by cracking down on cell phone abuse.

 

[CaptainJaguar]

Without concrete facts announced or given out, all the information out there is biased and should not be taken seriously at all. Some piece of real infomation may get out, then depending on the attitude of the person that hears that info, they will spin it the way they want things to go (like fox news and GW). In aviation, eveyone worries about their job security, but worrying gets you no where. Our owners love these aircraft, and as long as they are happy and paying money, we will be flying them!

I have heard about the cell phone thing too. I came from a company that would make you send in a detailed summary to every number not in their network and a reason why you called outside of the network. They are a fortune 100 comany and very profitable. They just dont understand how to talk to people, or I would still be there. If your using your phone for the right reason (business), then you should not go over the minutes and you wont get a letter for management asking why you did. It only takes 1 person to ruin tings for everyone else. We are all here to make money, right? How can a company be profitable, and make money, when they are footing the bill for a handfull of rouge employees who dont want to follow the contract they signed! They shouldn't! Avantair is doing the right thing by cracking down on cell phone abuse.

OOOH, do I smell Management bull sh*t? what's the deal with management and giving them selves away so easily? Well maybe you could enlighten us as to what the future of the company is?? I mean we know what you're going to get, but what about my pilot brothers and sister who are a dime a dozen apparently to SS? If pilots don't benefit out of all of this, then no one should either. All I know is that the pilots are the ones out there doing ALL the work. I talk to my friends and they tell me that besides being pilot, baggage handlers and flight attendant, they are sometimes "dispatchers, customer service reps" and many other things, while some people just pretty much sit on their arss and plan their weekly family vacations. It makes me sick uke:

 

[P180puke]

Mmmmm, I'm bettin that shiny new TBM850 flies real nice on those family vacas. Probly as nice as the Premiers that were used for the same.

 

[Flybet3]

Mmmmm, I'm bettin that shiny new TBM850 flies real nice on those family vacas. Probly as nice as the Premiers that were used for the same.

OH OOOOOHHH.... SPAGETTIO!

 

[P180puke]

OH OOOOOHHH.... SPAGETTIO!

okay, i laughed on that one.