Originally Posted by
Kilder
Big difference here ladies,
The problem is that Houston was historically the biggest Continental hub and the 737 was the growing fleet thus it was staffed as such.
By now moving 737 flying to the legacy United hubs who got a helping hand by the unbiased arbitrators and ALPA national, the legacy United pilots gained bidding power while the legacy Continental pilots lost bidding power thus any moving of flying away from the Continental hubs will produce a negative movement to the legacy Continental pilots, thus the letter from Ben.
While this might seemed "Allright" to many of you, it is absurd to believe that there is not an invisible hand at work here to remove junior Ca's from IAH and then have normal vacancies giving LUAL pilots those same seats that attrition would provide within the scope of few years.
If the airline was experiencing difficulties, we could agree that it would make sense, but not in this environment of growth, hiring and natural movement.
To add to Untied's post, are you aware of the decline in the price of oil? Do you know what the impact has been on Houston's economy? Here's an article from yesterday:
Local manufacturing industry sees effects of oil price decline - Community Impact Newspaper
Layoffs/increasing unemployment is never good for a city's air traffic. Houston's unemployment rate has increased by .5% in January 2015 alone. Compared to a decrease in national unemployment.
Economic contraction in Houston = Less O&D out of IAH = Less flying needed out of IAH.
Don't want to downgrade and don't want to go to one of those 'evil' LUAL hubs? Bid to EWR; you should have no problem holding your seat there. 'Problem' solved.