10/8/2014

The newly expanded APA board of directors — with duly designated chairmen and vice chairmen from CLT, PHL and PHX — is convening this week for the first time.

As a board, we are united concerning Scope. We understand and share your concerns prompted by senior management's recent comments about our industry-standard 76-seat limit on regional affiliate aircraft. Management has indicated a desire to dilute that limitation and obtain a below-industry-standard Scope Clause in the ongoing joint collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

This afternoon, the full APA board met with American Airlines CEO Doug Parker. Our conversation with Mr. Parker was frank and cordial and covered a wide range of items. Foremost among them: We informed him that APA will not agree to any Scope concessions. Our actions now concerning Scope will help define the profession for the balance of our careers and for the next generation of aviators, and we are committed to securing industry-leading pay and work rules.

With the merger of American Airlines and US Airways succeeding beyond the most optimistic forecasts, management needs to address APA's priorities concerning quality of life, work rules, and pay and benefits. Our pilots' sacrifices, our efforts on the merger's behalf and the vital role we play in the airline's success must be appropriately acknowledged.

 

Even better, have the MEC tell Mr Parker that APA pilots want to fly 170/175s and 700/900s.

 

this!!! +10000

 

Here's another rumor for the mill:

I was jumpseating on a PSA airplane and they said Kirby apparently mentioned that if they can't get bigger airplanes at the regionals, they might consider folding one of the Wholly-Owneds into the mainline...that they are very concerned about staffing down the road.

That's obviously all rumor, but in my opinion, I think bringing the larger RJs to the mainline would alleviate a lot of their staffing concerns, and they could much more easily "right size" the fleet if they wanted a lot more 81 seat airplanes running around. Keep our outsourced flying limited to the 50-seat RJs and the Dashs.

 

That would be a mess for integration. We have a big enough battle merging the 3 lists. Easy fix.. Convert the orders to mainline and it basically ends up being a jr (probation) aircraft. I don't think our pilot group would go for having a wholly owned merged in to our list.

 

Every wholly owned regional for every airline has had the same "rumor" for the last decade.

 

I don't think they'd necessarily have to be "merged". Offer flow-up for the younger guys and let the older guys stay with whatever wholly-owned is left if they want to. Merging any regional into mainline would be a non-starter, especially given the fact that none of those guys have spent a day at the mainline.

But the discussion was interesting. I think the company would actually be better off putting the larger RJs at the mainline and boosting Group I pay to where it wouldn't be painful to fly them for a few years.

In any case, I do think that Kirby understands that simply increasing the scope is just kicking the can down the road a little further. At some point they will have trouble hiring at the regional level with all of the larger airlines drawing in pilots by the thousands each year. Delta is planning on hiring over 100 a month in 2015. UAL will probably be close to that and whenever we fix our pipeline issue AA will probably hire several hundred...and the retirements haven't even begun to peak yet.

I don't think it's going to simply be so dire that PSA/Envoy/PDT simply park airplanes, but they are already having some issue filling seats now, it's only going to get worse. That's really the angle that APA needs to take with this. At the very least, the 175s need to be folded into the mainline, and maybe even the -900s. All at Group I pay.

 

Wasn't Kirby in Forbes the other month talking about the largest varient is the most economical? Well if we want all a321 and no more 319, than why even consider175 at mainline. Convert all orders to the 195 and call it a day.

 

Keep in mind Parker and cronies are very good at getting pilots whipped up over something they have no intention of really getting, that is an emotional trigger for us...

.....and screwing pilots over while they are focused on the hocus-pocus.

#1 Work Rules/Scheduling!
Health Insurance
Retirement
Pay

Note, pay is last. A lot more quality of life and total compensation in a package can come from not spending butt-wads of political capital on a fancy-pants pay rate.

#1 for me are work rules and scheduling. FAR117 totally hosed pilots over, so we have to get those old FAR protections back, and rigs, and scheduling flexibility.
None of us are getting any younger, and I for one don't want to give up being there for my son and wife while getting a crummy schedule that I can't get days off to go to a baseball game.

We already have the scope, and I trust the APA when they say scope relief is a non-starter.

So, on with item #1 above!

I'm telling ya legacy AA guys now, Parker and cronies want TOTAL control over your lives while at work, and off of work. If they had their way, 100% of all pilots would be at the airport, in uniform, with an earpiece so they can deploy you at will.

We MUST get control over our schedules now before it's too late with these people.

As a perspective, Parker and crew have gotten used to scheduling being above the chief pilots office in our chain of command, even though scheduling is not on our org chart!

 

TallfFlyer,

That has already been proposed over 2 years ago! We are continually telling them the same thing over and over.