Whats the latest on Gemini?

[pilotman700]

Whats the latest on Gemini Air Cargo? Last I heard, they had 10 engineers on furlough, but that was awhile ago. Any word on hiring or competitive mins?

Thanks For Any Info,

PilotMan

 

[GCD]

This months ALPA Airline Pilot mag. says that furloughed ALPA carrier pilots will get priority if they do any hiring.

 

[Pondscum]

Things at Gemini have begun to take a swing for the positive. We have recently hired 14 FO's for the DC-10, upgraded 7 to DC-10 Captain (I think this is still in process), and have recalled most (if not all) furloughed FE's. There has been no changes made to the staffing of the MD-11 however. Right now we have all but one DC-10 out of the desert. We recently returned one -10 to the leasor, so we have 4 MD-11's and 10 DC-10's up and running (as far as I know).
The last I heard as far as competitive mins were roughly 5000 hours total time with some PIC turbine thrown in. For a long time Gemini really liked the guys/gals that came from a commuter background (especially turboprop PIC). They also had a hankering for the ex-military types. As with most airlines, Gemini is VERY big on personality and recommendations from within. I don't know where these 14 new hires came from, other than a couple were former Gemini pilots who left and were subsequently on furlough from their new companies.
Our business has been bolstered by acquiring long term AMC contracts as well as the ad hoc stuff flown (still being flown)during Operation Enduring Freedom/Noble Eagle/Operation Iraqi Freedom. Gemini recently quit flying for Quantas (I've heard various reasons), but still maintains our DHL contract (to England and Belgium), as well as our South American contracts out of Miami.
Hope this info helps.

 

[AV8OR]

Hey Pondscum,

Do you have any idea what degree of your company's revenue comes from a foreign source? The reason I ask is that DHL Airways is an ACMI for DHL Worldwide, but if FEDEX, and UPS have their way, their will be a new definition for foreign control and it will be based on revenue, not stock. So, if greater than 50% of Gemini's revenue comes from outside the US, it would be in affect "foreign controlled". Just wondered if yall were watching this case?

 

[loNslo]

Gemini hiring?

Gemini's website says there are no openings. Are they really in the hiring mode? I thought they were close to going out of business. Hope not!

 

[Pondscum]

loNslo:
Unfortunately the Gemini website is not kept up-to-date. We are a good ways from being out-of-business. The best way to keep up with the hiring status is to have a contact in the Company. We have recently hired 14 folks for DC-10 FO slots and are upgrading 7 FO's to DC-10 Captain. Things are definately looking better.

AV8OR:
I haven't heard about the DHL case. It sounds very interesting. I can't say that I know what percentage of our revenue is from a foreign source. I have a feeling that as of today, the majority is from the US Military - AMC contracts and ad hoc flights. I also know that prior to the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, that the Carlyle group had pumped a considerable amount of cash into keeping us afloat. I recently heard from a senior crewmember that Carlyle has refused to continue the "infusion".
Thanks for the prompt, I'll do some sniffing around while I'm out here on the road and see what I can find out about our revenue sources.

 

[Pondscum]

The schedules for the DC-10 at Gemini tend to be 36 reserve lines of 19 days on (in a row of course) and roughly 11-13 days off. The "book" says we will all have a minimum of 11 days off at home, but that has not always held true. The MD-11 bubbas appear (just looking at a bid package) to have 23 hard lines with 19 days on and about 11-13 days off, and 3 reserve lines with the same. Why us DC-10 guys don't have any hard lines is a question that has puzzled us all for many moons.

I don't have the current pay plan in front of me, but as I recall, first year FO's start at $36K guaranteed (65 hrs/mo), but this can go up depending on any overtime. The move to 2nd year is somewhere around 40%. Gemini crews aren't the lowest paid in the business -- we aren't nearly the highest paid -- but boyhowdy are we ugly!

Gemini aircrews are all home-based. However, we tend to do a majority of our flying out of the typically large ports (KLAX, KJFK, KMIA, PANC, etc). So a guy knows pretty much where he will be going in a typical month. With the type af business we do (ACMI) we leave from just about everywhere and go to just about everywhere.

Funny you should ask about upgrades.... There is a class upgrading to DC-10 Captain as we speak. The plan (from what I have read) is to upgrade 7. These are the first upgrades in over 2 years. There has also been about 5 FE's upgrade to FO (3 to MD-11 FO and 2 to DC-10 FO). These FO's that are upgrading are about 4th or 5th year employees. These guys upgraded a little more than a year ago. I do know that there are still some FE's wanting to upgrade, but the majority are PFE's. There has been no word of further upgrades for CA or FO.

As it has been in the past with Gemini (and most others as well), personal recommendations carry a lot of weight. Right now the only person doing the hiring is the CP. In the past, the Chief FE was doing a considerable amount of work in that area and was more receptive to the idea of hiring some guys without recommendations. As far as where to send a resume, I can PM a name and address for those truely interested.

As a side note, we voted in ALPA representation last June, and our negotiating committee is hard at work. The Company (of course the Association agreed) has said that they want to have a contract nailed down by the end of the year.

Hope this helps.