JohnBurke

I don't hate WGA. I've made that clear. You are incorrect.

All of WGA aircraft are not parked.

N411SN: On the ground Shreveport (mx base), been there since Oct 15 (4 months)
N412SN: On ground Anchorage, (3 days)
N415JN: On the ground Chicago, arrived today
N512JN: On the ground Incheon, arrived today
N513SN: On the ground Taipei (heavy check), been there since Jan 03 (1.5 months)
N542KD: In flight, enroute to Incheon
N543JN: On the ground Shreveport (mx base), been there since Feb 13 (2 weeks)
N545JN: On the ground Anchorage, (2 days)
N546JN: On the ground Shreveport (mx base), been there since Dec 31 (2 months)
N581JN: On the ground Los Angeles, arrived today
N781SN: In flight, enroute to Anchorage
N799JN: On the ground, RSW, been there since Feb 03 (3 weeks)

Of the MD-11's, 7 aren't moving, including heavy checks and other apparent extended maintenance. That may equate to broken airplanes, or airplanes parked due to lack of work, lack of crew, or whatever the case may be. See flightradar24.

WGA liked to make a point of telling it's own employees that it had a very large parts inventory, it's own engine shop and performed its own overhauls, and a large supply of engines; new hire classes were told that WGA owned Lufthansa's airplanes, engines, and parts, and leased them back to Lufthansa. Not true. WGA liked to brag internally that it was the most profitable airline in the world and the fastest growing. The fastest growing was always a ridiculous assertion, but so far as profitability, what Neff was hauling in during Covid was mind boggling for a company with owned aircraft. WGA's problem is that frequently they've not had a tire available; a single tire, claiming that none were available, while Fedex managed to have rows of them on the ramp. I'm aware of a particular case in which WGA borrowed a tire in Honolulu, from Fedex, and the airplane had barely come to a rest in Memphis before FedEx removed the tire and took it back. FedEx has learned about loaning parts. One of WGA's airplanes has been flying for quite some time with a UPS radome, still in UPS brown, which was a loaner, and never got returned. Perhaps WGA bought it.It looks silly. WGA claimed to have bought Lufthansa's MD-11's and parts; I believe UPS got most of them at the end.

FedEx poached quite a few mechanics right off the ramp while they were working for WGA, at Memphis. Who could blame them? WGA was actually bringing mechanics on board fresh out of A&P school, with no experience. I spent some time with one of them. He had no idea which way was up, and before he'd even seen a familiarization course, he was being told to sign things off. WGA was also using contract mx, with varying degrees of success.

When you say there are people "here wanting to get into wide bodies," do you mean this web board, or at WGA? Everything at WGA is widebody. WGA has been known to take some very low experience pilots. WGA has also experienced an unusually high failure rate for upgrades, for some of those inexperienced pilots attempting their first captain experience. They have been known to offer the chance...not everyone who jumps at it has been ready.

WGA is home-based, and many of their crew do not live in Florida.

Given the recent pay raises, the jump forward is substantial; with the previous 10% pay raise, it equated to a three-year jump in pay. Add a 20% pay raise on top. of that (25% for F/O, I hear), and it's a significant change from where it was.

A unique aspect of WGA's maintenance has been the use of foreign mechanics. The best of their maintenance is done by those outside the US, and those mechanics have been denied the benefits and considerations that US mechanics may have been accorded. It was a very poor way to be cheap, on Neff's part, but he's long attempted to run a global airline with one scheduler on duty, and a skeleton staff. With the freakishly poor level of maintenance that's come out of Shreveport, the foreign mechanics (who live all over the world and were Europe-based, now it seems more in Incheon and other spots) may have been the most critical talent that Neff has working for him, and also one of the most abused. He'd have done well to invest more in those mechanics long ago.

WGA could absolutely be a good place to go: the issues that have been discussed here and that are well known among those who do work there, are fixable. All of them. Some of them, such as wages, are seeing an improvement, probably a shot in the dark to stop the hemorrhaging of crew to other carriers, and perhaps a preemptive effort in advance of negotiations. Who knows? As I stated before, I hope WGA is able to correct the issues which have plagued them. Many of these issues are not accidental; every maintenance discrepancy in the fleet is discussed daily; every can that gets kicked down the road is a conscious decision, not an oversight. If WGA parked airplanes for lack of parts until the necessary parts were available to operate, that might be a plus, but WGA pushes airplanes to keep moving anyway; they don't stop until they can't move.

Neff has 777's coming. In my opinion, which counts for nothing, Neff would be wise to bring on more 747-400's. If either one is maintained the same as the MD-11, they don't have a bright future. If the maintenance picks up and things get fixed and preventative maintenance gets done proactively, airplanes will keep moving, and they won't have to try to operate with 70% or more of the fleet parked at any given time. Grounded airplanes don't make money. It's false economy to keep pushing airplanes, instead of keeping them maintained and working. Neff doesn't seem to get that concept, and it's not simply a lack of parts. The parts are out there. I had a discussion on a ramp with a WGA mechanic regarding a missing hartwell latch. The mechanic told me the company wouldn't order any more, because they were too expensive. He said they were 400 dollars each. That is entirely untrue, but it's what he'd been told. That kind of thinking is what holds them back. It's the old adage of being too busy sawing to take time to sharpen the saw. Sharpen it, keep it sharp, productivity increases, profits go up. It takes money to make money, as we all know, and Neff is going to have to pry open the purse strings to keep the airplanes maintained, to keep them moving.

They're not all grounded. But a lot are. It doesn't need to be that way.