XJ CRJ FO's

[captpetefam]

Jeez, you have way too much time on your hands JP. Good work though. Very informative. It's nice to see an actual report with factual numbers by a non-biased group.

 

[idoitupsidedown]

what is NWA's restructuring website? i found it on a post somewhere the other day and now can't find it.

 

[JPAustin]

Thanks Pete. I'm just trying to bring reality to a trying situation. Unfortunately, there are a lot of armchair managers on these boards and LOTS of rumors from "reliable" sources that are "in the know". I don't pretend to be an expert either, but when there are forces at work that are directly affecting my life, my way of dealing with the stress is looking for the facts and extracting from those facts reasonable theories as to what may or may not be going on. Rumors don't mean a thing until the plane pulls up to the gate or leaves the gate under tow of a banker-owned tug.

 

[JPAustin]

http://www.nwa-restructuring.com/CourtFiledDocuments/firstDayMotions.html

 

[T-handle]

If the company decides to furlough, perhaps all of the captains that just went through training or still in training, will bid a new aircraft to go back to as FO.

 

[avrodriverj85]

It doesnt make sense to me if NWA is in bankruptcy and is missing its payments to Mesaba, ($40 million, so far) then what financial support does XJ really have, then to follow right along with big brother into Chapter 11..

XJ doesnt have any other revenue streams set up, so the only way to make it lean is to cut costs. Cutting costs means asking for concessions, and bankruptcy protection seems to be the business way these days to those cuts..

Also if NWA actually does close its MEM hub, XJ could get out of it's cost of re-locating pilots (moving expenses) while under bankruptcy protection.

I wouldn't see that 15 CRJ's coming over to XJ from Pinnacle is a very positive move. I see another "carrot" and "threat of bankruptcy - if the pilots dont take cuts" - blah blah blah, from ALPA. I know that the history of mesaba pilots life is always waiting in the dark for "the upcoming announcement", but I think it's pretty clear XJ is dead in the water.

 

[Jimdandy]

Along with 85 seats added surely they should get a reduction in the lease pymts. this should help bring costs of the aircraft down. On the other hand...........

Figuring 200 dollars always more in maint. and approx. 250 dollars more in fuel cost means.......450 dollars more than crj900 per block hour.

450 x (10 hours per aircraft x 35 aircraft) x 30 days a month x 12 months a year= 56,700,000

I know my Math is very fuzzy but can lowering the lease pymts save 56 million dollars a year?

What about the saabs over time they can just farm that out to Colgan, great Lakes and or Skywest. Surely they can do it cheaper seeing as the average pilot is 1 year pay and the mgmt doesn't make 750,000 dollars a year plus living exspenses.

 

[Yudso]

Any speculation as to what tomorrows secret meeting is about. My money is on concessions.

 

[WMUSIGPI]

My guess is it goes something similar to this.
"we have a way to keep the avros for now.... we must be able to fly them with 85 seats, and get the lease payments cut. You must agree to fly the planes with these extra seats for a slightly reduced pay rate then agree to keep that rate for all future >100 seat flying that may come your way...oh by the way we also reserve the right to convert all your crj orders to 70 or 90 seats as we feel fit to replace the avros later on. We won't furlough anyone or hire anyone, just send home the extra pilots with pay as extra reserves til class dates open up for crj's. CVG will be closed and there will be no displacement bids allowed."

Am I close???

 

[T-handle]

Any speculation as to what tomorrows secret meeting is about. My money is on concessions.

'My money is on concessions'...... sounds ironic. :laugh:

Another last minute, no preview "special meeting" involving more "confidentiality agreements". That brings back a little deja vu.......

 

[RP170]

I was referring to the QOL life as an FO is probably better at XJ......but there is no career advancing at XJ. Don't get me wrong, they both are bad in their own outstanding ways.

Yeah my QOL here at CHQ is pretty crappy with a 16 day off line in only the second month I've been here.

 

[wmudriver]

Yeah my QOL here at CHQ is pretty crappy with a 16 day off line in only the second month I've been here.

 

[BOHICAgain]

16 days off... are you including reserve days that your not used??? if not you must be flying 60 hours a month max..making absolutely no money what so ever... but then again no first year regional FO makes any money.. especially Greatlakes FO man $$15.00 an hour WOOOW

 

[smokey999]

16 days off... are you including reserve days that your not used??? if not you must be flying 60 hours a month max..making absolutely no money what so ever... but then again no first year regional FO makes any money.. especially Greatlakes FO man $$15.00 an hour WOOOW

What are you smoking. 14 days at 6 hours a day equals 84 hours. That's on the low side.

 

[T-handle]

Not much "quality" of life when you're making $22/hr with your so called 16 days off. Then again, no regional FO their first few years is making any real money.

 

[BOHICAgain]

What are you smoking. 14 days at 6 hours a day equals 84 hours. That's on the low side.

So you fly 6 hours everyday while at work... that must be pretty good lifestyle.. man i wish I was at CHQ...so who flies the crappy flights with 20 hours on the ground..and a couple hours with productivity sits???

 

[sweptback]

So you fly 6 hours everyday while at work... that must be pretty good lifestyle.. man i wish I was at CHQ...so who flies the crappy flights with 20 hours on the ground..and a couple hours with productivity sits???

Yeah, we're obviously missing something here. I personally spoke to a CHQ crew in TPA that was on a 3 hour sit, with a similar sit later in the day. If these guys flew 6 hours they would be on duty for close to 16 hours.

Maybe it's possible that the new guys know how to work the system to get all the days off, but I doubt it. I think for every newbie FO that posts about how his life is great on flightinfo there has to be one with the min days off working 5am-9pm every day (who obviously doesn't post on here).

 

[Rossa]

Heard recently: Meeting on Friday did not include anything that we already didn't know! 2 more CRJ's waiting on the ramp in Montreal for delivery - Bombardier doesn't want to deliver and have Mesaba F##% them over when we claim Chpt 11 !!!! Training suspended, but Mesaba telling the Canucks (unsure if spelt correctly) that 28 training events already paid for, so training will resume soon!! Mesaba waiting to see what NWA wants them to do next (or already decided) - word is........a LOT is going to go down in the next 2 weeks and how we, as a Pilot group react will decide our future!!!!!!!!
9E is spreading the word about more growth post Christmas, most likely involving Embraer products, 9E Captains are telling us that the pilot group over there has a "laissez faire" attitude and is pretty weak! (Not slamming you guys!) - these guys weren't full of B.S!! They are afraid that the young guys and foreign pilots will fly the larger jets for 50 seat pay, screwing the older guys who have responsibilities in life!!
By the way, I'm not trying to bash 9E, so hold your fire!!!!!!!!

 

[idoitupsidedown]

"Mesaba telling the Canucks (unsure if spelt correctly) that 28 training events already paid for, so training will resume soon!!"


Who will be in training? Are the avros really going away and those pilots will be training for the CRJs, or will the avros stay and new hire training will resume as normal?

 

[dondk]

9E is spreading the word about more growth post Christmas, most likely involving Embraer products, 9E Captains are telling us that the pilot group over there has a "laissez faire" attitude and is pretty weak! (Not slamming you guys!) - these guys weren't full of B.S!! They are afraid that the young guys and foreign pilots will fly the larger jets for 50 seat pay, screwing the older guys who have responsibilities in life!!
By the way, I'm not trying to bash 9E, so hold your fire!!!!!!!!

As a 9E captain.. I have heard those rumors too. Almost all of them coming out of MEM. I am not sure if this a Nonconnah spin or not, but enough of a spin to give "hope" and that is about it. Double digit attrition is enough of a reason to spin 70 seater's or better.

As for our junior and pilot group of the world.... It has been a concern of a low ball sell out for growth. Although... a good 40% of the pilot group has been screwed over too many times I doubt the company could get a vote for a low ball rate for larger jet's. This would require a vote by the pilot group and with the meltdowns and junior assignments by FedEx I don't think anyone trust the company any more.