Don't forget Lan has 3 more 777F's that SA is in line to receive.

744driver,
All I'm stating is my opinion. And my opinion is that our current contract is nothing at all to hold up as a template for acceptable (for the type of flying we do). Sure, SA's contract may be awful, but I've given up counting the holes in ours. The few recent tweaks via MOUs/LOAs only bring us closer to what regional guys have had for a long time. I'm very happy to have RU pushing hard to get us a contract that will represent our contributions to the success of the company.

Hopefully everyone will survive this ordeal without too much animosity.:)

SA and Atlas guys can probably knock this contract out of the ballpark if they don't fall for the union busting 101 tricks.

The timing is everything I agree, so... instead of theorizing and prophesying what the other guys are doing, let's grab the bull by the horns and make this a phenomenal place to stay for all of us.

I have an interview in China coming up and really don't want to go so here's an idea! How about we don't fall for the same old dirty tricks!

You'll know if you have a good SLI merger if EVERYONE is p.o.ed.

I can say definitively to thank your lucky stars that you two are in the same union and same local.

Maybe not so definitive (just my own opinion); Thank your lucky stars that you two are not represented by the elitist ALPA! Among other reasons, IBT has more influence outside of airline industry which is just what you might need if/when the poop hits the fan.

^^Yup. I'm in the middle of a the XJT merger, 2 ALPA carriers and non Union SKYW. 7k pilots between the three groups and 4K are unionized. This place is whipsaw to the extreme. At least both Atlas and SA are in the same Union boat. I'm starting class in less than 2 weeks (Atlas) and I'm going to be optimistic about what this could be. I just hope both groups stay unified!

If you consider how ALD sold the pilot group in RAH negotiations, are you holding your breath? DB and his cronies are management's best friend.

Will this spell the end to the current SA management team? DM and DS?

The thing that scares me is in both the Atlas and Southern CBAs it says in the event of a seniority list merger the union has 9 months to agree to a merged CBA or it goes to arbitration.

With both Atlas and Southern in early stages of negotiations for new contracts, we may just end up with the bastard child of a ****ty contract and another even more ****ty contract.

If anything, it should put the SA guys in a better QOL position.
Maybe now they can get rid of the RJ management team.

Yeah it would benefit the 250 Southern pilots but what about the 1250 Atlas ones.

Then for the Southern pilots, would a merged contract be better or worse than what they could have got on their own.

Seems like as we go into negotiations Atlas management is playing the same old games where the only real winner will be the company.

Everyone on both sides is scared, or more specifically concerned. There is a meeting today @ SAI that is inclusive of management from both companies. They are supposed to be answering questions fielded from employees of SAI. That should supply a crumb of information to further fuel more speculation.

As many of my colleagues, I am cautiously optimistic about this whole thing, and really not all that optimistic. It is just too early in the game to tell.

The hardest thing right now is waiting for enough information to come out to see just which way the collective bargaining should be steered for SAI and/or AWW.

The most important thing is that we maintain a solidarity in making this industry better.

I 2nd that!

An opportunity for greatness has been given to you. Don't waste it.

No it won't benefit Atlas guys to add 777's and 737's to the fleet..... And Atlas just wasted money purchasing SAI.... Can't believe they did that...........

ah the CEO has spoken ^^^^^^^
why did Hede buy ATI and Capital Cargo?

Atlas paid $110 million for an asset that will generate $100 million on the balance sheet this year alone. I hope Mr. Flynn keeps "waisting" money....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Saw communication from someone who attended the meeting at SAI. When it comes to CBA's, integration, etc., there was no substantive statements made. As far as SAI's operations, Atlas's management's intent was to keep the "status quo" for the time being and for an indeterminate period of time.

Communication from SAI to their employees regarding the "acquisition" and this Townhall meeting has effectively been squelched for widespread distribution. We were informed that a phone conference call would not be possible and that the proceeding would be video taped. A post-meeting email stated that video would not be available and that an email will be sent with some of the points that were made. To me, read this as the message you get watching some movies - "Edited for Content". Why is it that two avenues of communication were closed off for this meeting - coincidence?

There are a myriad of factors involved in this whole deal that has ratcheted up my concern by a large number of levels.

Spidey Senses are tingling, and it ain't good.

Be prepared, looks like it's going to get rough. We have to stick together on this one, Muy Importante!

777s have been rumored to be coming for years, lots of business for that fleet in the years ahead. And, once the integration/fences are worked out, 777 pays more than the 767, so how would that not benefit some of our guys? Plenty of us got screwed out of a chance to upgrade in the regionals, so even 737 CA might be a draw.

Plenty of areas of concern ahead, but that pretty much centers on the CBA. Let's get industry standard pay and see what happens.

All In, and ALL TOGETHER!

Clearly you didn't think I was serious...... Did you?

Another one who took me serious.... Jeeeeze! I was just joking! :D

Blah accretive, blah blah shareholder value..uhhh..customer value, blah blah blah exceptional team, tremendous potential for success.

"Leave the gun take the cannoli."

Really? Initially America West and USair were in the same union - alpo.. :rolleyes:

Agree.
---
Good luck to all involved. Mergers/acquisitions are always messy...:(

Sarcasm doesn't always come through the interwebs. Ask me how I know! :D

Because they were attached to Cargo Holdings, Inc. Hete bought CHI to get CAM the aircraft leasing company, the airlines just happened to come along with it. If the ATI pilots hadn't have chickened out at the last minute and voted for the merger contract, things would look very different at ATSG today. Either way Hete's interest was CAM, not ATI or CCI.

Atlas management is in MIA at our training center right now briefing staff. The company wants a merger as soon as possible.

This x2, hook, line, and sinker...

Evidently Atlas is interested in the 737-800 freighter. Not sure if this means they want to try and swap DHL's 400s that Southern currently flies and replace them, or use them to supplement a new fleet of 800s.

As far as the LAN birds- if the one we currently fly is any indicator as to the level of "South American" maintenance standards, the rest of them won't be any gems. Every time I fly that bird there's no fewer than 8 MELs and they're different ones every time.

SAI does not own any aircraft, other than maybe some 742 hulks in the desert. Period. They don't even hold the leases. All aircraft are either owned or leased by DHL. DHL sourced all the 737's. SAI had nothing to do with it.

Correct, you are... Fixed it for you, I did.

Atlas owns 3 triples through its dry lease subsidiary Titan. This move, if transacted as announced, adds diversification and gains more control of the DHL component. Reportedly meeting with 1224 tomorrow?

Interesting. Even with our CBA, good luck staffing 737 FOs...

The 767-200s they gave us to start in CVG had been scavenged for every good component during their years in the weeds. They want us to fly hangar queens? That's fine. Make sure everything is written up every leg and get a full briefing from the mechanic and maintenance control, too, prior to every departure to make sure we're being safe.

All In. All Together!

Titan owns 6 777's
LAN has 3 more,

Interesting. LAN is rumored to be moving out of 777 leases because of fleet alignment with TAM and the addition of A350 flying there. The freighter's becoming an unintended casualty.

OK...how do you know?


All In!

(and ROFLMAO)

I can see the advantage to them of telling you that they want a merger. But what would be the advantage to them of actually merging the companies? Or more specifically, of merging the pilot seniority lists?

The ability to slide the 777 flying over and pick up a new 777 customer using Atlas and Southern pilots. This acquisition seems to be heavily weighted towards the desire to be in the 777/737 market. Southern doesn't own any of their airplanes. The value seems to be in being able to assume the flying that southern already has under their certificates.

Or so that we can sign a 777 contract with SonAir; they've been rumored to want 777s for a long time.

There are three ways to do that:
1. Add passenger operations, management, and administration to Southern's OpSpecs.
2. Add the 777 operation, training program, and management to Atlas OpSpecs (redundant to Southern's operation).
3. Merge Southern into the Atlas certificate.

My money (and hope) is on option 3. Merging certificates is a big task, but then you can start a passenger operation the next day, and realize several other benefits of a merged operation.

Hang on! What's this about passengers? I'm gonna have to start wearing pants!

In order for #2 to happen this deal would have to get DOJ approval by end of February and a Passenger 777 up and running by end of April. Atlas makes things happen but that is a tight timeline but good luck!

I'm not sure what the 744 burns an hour but I'm sure there's a huge cost savings with 2 engines on a 14 hour flight.