Originally Posted by DC8DRIVER

Tell you what Kerizbro, c'mon on over and interview armed with your extensive research and try out Atlas for a while.

Don't know why I'm even bothering to reply to you, but maybe it'll be informative for anyone else who wants to try to get a job here without reading this whole thread and heeding our warnings. Most Atlas pilots, including me, are optimistic, happy people who are simply trying to warn fellow pilots against making a bad decision. It doesn't make sense for many of us to get hired at another airline, advanced age being chief among the reasons, so the argument about "why don't you just move on" simply doesn't make sense for our situation. BUT, every new pilot that gets hired at Atlas is more than qualified to get hired at a better airline. If it is simply the world wide travel or the big shiny jets that you want, go to Kalitta. They do the same thing that we do, but are paid substantially more.

Most of us Atlas pilots who have been posting here for the past several years started out being very positive about the job and the company. We rooted for new hires and bent over backwards to help out applicants. Then, last spring, Atlas abruptly terminated our section six contract negotiations and announced that they were going to force an amalgamation with Southern Air's pitiful contract. If the company is successful, Atlas pilots would probably be looking at a pay cut. Management has announced that they intend to fight with us for "years" over this. This is current the situation here.

Meanwhile, many other carriers who have historically been extremely underpaid, have signed contracts that far surpass our current contract. All the majors airlines, Jet Blue, Allegiant, Southwest, ABX, Kalitta, and many others pay much more for flying smaller aircraft on far less complicated and brutal trips. There is also a higher risk of a training failure at Atlas due to their "non-standard" training system.

Last, with the Amazon purchase of a large share of our stock, the future of Atlas is perilously uncertain. There are rumors of breaking apart the airline into Amazon, DHL, and charter segments. There are rumors of the 767 operation being sold to ABX. There are rumors of FedEx buying the long range routes and planes but not taking the pilots. It is becoming pretty clear that Atlas management is dragging out the contract talks for some sort of fire sale. If you had done your due diligence, you would have discovered that the Atlas executive management team divided 66 million dollars among themselves last year and simultaneously secured significant golden parachutes for "some reason".

Personally, my faith in the leadership of Atlas has completely disintegrated and I believe that they are only in this game for themselves.

I don't have any idea about what your current status is and I don't really care. But if you are trying to improve your situation, there are far, far better options than Atlas.

But, yeah, give Atlas a try. Just don't say you weren't warned.

8