Originally Posted by
Texas Flyer
I have a serious question for all you Eagle pilots with family's and/or responsibilities. In December of 2007 I was hired with ExpressJet and was told to expect a class in January, well the economy tanked and long store short, I quit a descent flying gig for ExpressJet and class eventually cancelled, so I was out of a job. I ended up changing careers to please my wife (now ex) and became a cop. I have been a cop for a couple years now and really enjoy it but miss being a pilot even more. I applied with Eagle in August and was offered a job on September 15. I have a mortgage, child support and a ton of bills courtesy of my wonderful (sarcasm) ex-wife. I know I will be taking a substaintial pay cut for the first couple of years at the airlines and I am ok with that. My question is with all the rumors with AMR filing for chapter 11, is it a good time for me to quit another decent job only to have class cancelled or make it through training only to be one of the lucky ones to be furloughed. What would you do? This is my first post and would really prefer only mature responses. Thanks in advance!
Eagle is high risk / high reward type of deal right now. If AMR can sign a contract with the AA pilots they will probably not need chapter 11. Right now management is playing the chapter 11 talk as well as Eagle divestiture to lock in a contract. AA won't show a profit until the contract is signed. But AA has to show a profit soon since the media as well as the investors are becoming extremely impatient. If AA files for BK, management would pay a huge price, right now AA could be easily taken over and in BK it would be even easier. If this is to happen allot of the management folks would probably loose jobs/positions you get the idea. This is creative accounting, for the 3rd QT AMR lost nearly 170M oil is to be said to have cost the company over half a billion compared to last year. When you look at these numbers considering they could probably buy Frontier for this amount of money and start parking the S80 at an accelerated rate. There is a method to the madness and a reason why people don't get fired. On paper AMR is bleeding cash, but when you erase your losses by depreciating other things and take advance of the U.S.A Tax system AMR is not doing as bad as people are making it out to be. As far as Eagle, the company will get an extension on the contract that will last until 2020 so Eagle is about to continue having it's labor stability. Eagle will probably remain wholly owned unless someone buys us. AMR like to be in control and Eagle is profitable just a bit more expensive, you will see a max exudes at Eagle and with in the first 1,000 pilots hire at AA being composed of nearly 2/3 of Eagle pilots out longevity is about to decrease significantly. This is why we will hire over 600 pilots this year and looking to continue hiring at the same rate into next year.