Originally Posted by
duvie
Companies like DHL and Airbone Express, which apparently are not seperate anymore, have what seems like a more seperate department for their aviation divisions. Do Abex and Astar operate seperately under contract for DHL/Airborne?
Also, a little off topic, but when you guys show up for work is it a pretty different environment than an airline because you're not under constant scrutiny of pax/FAs/gate agents? It seems like it would be a lot more mellow environment.
Any other information related to cargo ops is much appreciated.
DHL (which is wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Post, and therefore a foreign company unable under law to own a U.S. airline) bought Airborne. Airborne and DHL, as part of the deal, spun off Airborne's wholly owned airline subsidiary ABX Air. ABX Air is now a publically traded U.S. airline under contract to DHL to haul freight.
Astar is the former DHL Airways. DHL used to be an independant U.S. based corporation and was thus able to own and operate a U.S. airline. This changed in the late 1990's when DHL sold itself overseas. At that time DHL Airways, which continued to operate under that name, was partially sold off to meet the requirements of U.S. law. Around the time DHL/DP bought Airborne DHL Airways was sold to an investment group headed by John Dasburg and the name was changed to Astar. Astar also has a contract with DHL to haul freight.
ABX currently operates approximately 100 aircraft, Astar about 40.
While there are no F/S's, gate agents, etc, there are loadmasters, ramp supers, station supers etc. Security can burdensome, and ranges from understandable if objectionable (I get screened leaving the airport - somebody in security thinks I'm stupid enough to risk a 6 figure income to steal an IPOD from the cargo) to absurd. Absurd involves screening pilots (to include FFDO's) for weapons to prevent them from using said weapons to gain access to the cockpit and take control of the aircraft. Duh!!!
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