Originally Posted by
Al Czervik
Pretty sure all the furloughs are due to lack of flying.
All airlines are experiencing a lack of demand/flying. Not all airlines are furloughing. Some are much more able to weather this storm due to the business decisions, business strategies and the debt loads they carried pre-COVID.
AA has to furlough, in part, because the debt load they buried THEMSELVES under pre-COVID was barely sustainable before the virus, and impossibly crushing in a recession/pandemic. AA was the lowest margin US airline pre-COVID, just barely in the black. That was during some of the best times for airlines in history. Now is one of the worst times in history and the debt load has only gone UP. What did you think was going to happen?
In BOS/NYC AA has slowly been pushed towards the point of irrelevancy by JB and DL. DL has also been highly aggressive towards AA in other important markets because they were strong and AA was weak. Without a partnership with JB in BOS/NYC, this trend was going to continue and likely accelerate. How do you think that ends for you with pilot staffing??? Not well.
This codeshare between JB and AA in BOS/NYC is yet another hail Mary pass by AA to be relevant in BOS/NYC and it is also my very strong opinion that there is NO possible way AA doesn't go through chapter 11 restructuring (not saying I want this) and AA management KNOWS this to be true, so this is also AA management picking it's successor in BOS/NYC, and choosing that successor to NOT be DL.
The bad news for you is this isn't likely to be the last furlough announcement by AA, which again I wish wasn't true, and your management is already checking the bankruptcy court calendar for openings that don't interfere with Doug's tee times or holiday weeks.
Your JB Derangement Syndrome is wholly misguided, you need to look inward for where your problems originate.