Originally Posted by thesandbox

I think Atlas has a good business model and the leadership has been put in the positions by the system of checks and balances that goes along with a publicly traded company and I enjoy the semblance of security that brings. I can not speak for others but at Ryan we did have a decent business model that used to have us at over 800 pilots also flying for Emery and USPS that was undercut by politics at the highest level of the USPS and FedEx. The owners that purchased us in 2004 were a commercial real estate development company with greedy investors that set up so many LLC's that it has been discovered over just the last several months through further affidavits and subpoenas that the owners were actually able to steal over $100 MILLION in just the last year alone. We had revenues of $300-400 million the last few years and only around $50 million in debt.....go figure. We once thought we were the cream of the crap and well supported with a solid game plan but yes, the greedy saw $200-300K profit margins off of uncle sams teet and burned all their bridges flying those measly $30K profit margin trips. It is sad these days how a few can ruin it for several hundreds of others but it is what it is and I know there are already a few in jail for their fuel schemes with the DOD and hopefully more will come. For the pilot group it was a great place to work and we know we made money and supported all their commercial developments through the downturn. Several of us are now here and, yes, we enjoy it and have found the pilot group just as great. It is also nice to know growth and customers are not taken lightly and that hopefully we have a large enough market cap that keeps the hedge funds away as well. I am almost 43 and would like to spend my next 14 years at the same place once again, enjoying the type of flying this provides but it would be nice to know that OUR contract matches the type of product we provide and the customers that we try to attract. Some of us are just trying to help make all of our collective careers here the best it possibly can be.