Originally Posted by
Andy
I've heard about TWA FA recall rights before. Can anyone discuss this in further detail? (Number of furloughed FAs, Recall rights, estimated cost to the company).
I've found it odd that AMR continues to reduce block hours while other carriers are increasing block hours. I can only imagine that it would be a significant cost item to recall TWA FAs.
Also, have the number of hrs worked/mo increased for AMR FAs?
Hello Andy,
Yes, it is definitely odd, if not downright maddening, that AA has been reducing its schedule over the last two years while everyone else has been picking it up. We've been told it's because AA wants to build up a big cash position to order new aircraft, buy another airline's assets, or pay down our huge debt ($18B or so...) Also, Wall Street loves shrinkage. The more jets we park, the more our stock goes up, the bigger the management $$$ bonuses.
AA has been trying to hold off on recalls for two years now, while furloughing "off the top." Since they were in shrinkage mode, they would just announce 25 jets being parked per six months to correspond to the retirements. Now, however, it appears that they've shrunk down to where they want to be. Hence, the recalls - they don't want to park any more jets, I guess.
Like you pointed out, 10 recalls/month won't cover attrition. I suspect that number will go up. But it's a start. And it also covers their a$$ in case something major happens, like age 65, contract concessions that require fewer pilots, etc. In which case, 10/month would be for growth! (hopefully not.)
The TWA/AA furloughed f/a situation is very unfortunate, as thousands of our coworkers on the street are slowly losing their recall rights. The most senior group will lose their recall rights in summer 2008. At that point, AA hopes to have a new contract in place, at which point they will launch a massive expansion, announce new aircraft orders, and recall lilke there's no tomorrow, if not outright hiring off the street. This of course is conditional on the economy and the potential for more terrorist attacks, war with N Korea or Iran (hopefully not!) and oil prices.
What can I tell you - it's a start, and some dearly awaited good news, for our furloughees, and for yours truly (2nd from the bottom system-wide.) The bypass rate will intially go higher as we recall more and more. Those that will come back almost definitely are our flowbacks at AE. The rest, who knows. Most of my furloughed friends have found good employment at CAL, Fedex, UPS, Netjets, Jetblue, etc. Most of them will bypass, I know that. It's gonna be interesting. I'm just glad AA finally jumped on the recall bandwagon.
Stay tuned!
73