Atlas Purchases Southern Air
 

Breaking news: Atlas Air to acquire Southern Air in $110m takeover - Air Cargo News

http://www.businesswire.com/news/hom...n-Air-Holdings
From the article

We are very pleased to announce a strategically compelling, highly complementary and immediately accretive acquisition of Southern Air,” said William J. Flynn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Atlas Air Worldwide. “And we are eager to capitalize on the substantial opportunities that the transaction will provide, especially 777 and 737 aircraft operations.

“The result will be a more diversified and profitable company offering access to the widest range of modern, efficient aircraft, together with a broader mix of services and a greater scale and global footprint that will drive significant value for our customers and shareholders.”

“We very much look forward to joining the Atlas Air family of companies,” said Daniel J. McHugh, Chief Executive Officer of Southern Air Holdings. “We share the same commitment to providing superior customer service via our exceptional team of aviation professionals. And Southern Air will now have a strong and viable parent to enable us to continue to grow.”

Interesting way to start the day. I am sure there will be more to come. Best of luck to everyone.

Wow! Well good for the Southern guys.

Anyone closer to Atlas or Southern care to speculate on how this is going to affect current and near future hiring? The last I heard, Atlas wanted to hire several hundred pilots this year.

Not the atlas guys.

SAH group is 250 roughly, and they will be operated as a separate certificate for the time being. I Atlas needs 700 they will still be 900 between now and the time that certificate is merged to make the numbers work.

downndirty side by side
 

Atlas and Southern side by side pay scales for quick ref.

Unless there is a large CMI possibility in the works. If that is the case there will be more upgrades for everyone currently on the properties that might not have been possible as separate entities.

Atlas and Southern FO's pay scales side by side for reference

Why is that? Will it affect you? The things Pilot's worry about..... :rolleyes::rolleyes:

The only loser in this will be DHL and LAN cargo. Depending on when the contracts expire, they pay more, or lose 13 airplanes to Amazon.

Emirates 777 flying....

SAI 60 (777) 61 (737) hour guarantee
AWW 62 hour guarantee

From what I heard, there still has not been anything definitively set up as to the merging of the seniority lists. I heard one scenario earlier, then heard another one this morning. The merging of seniority lists always tends to be a messy business no matter what way it works out, with bruised feelings or negative repercussions on both sides. We should all hope for something that is equitable to everyone.

I imagine that SAI will be operated as a separate entity and an inclusive equipment fence for a significant period of time.

It's probably going to be a good 3+ months before we all figure out what is going to happen and how the details will be pounded out. Speculation at this point is just that, and only gives the opportunity for animosities to breed. Let's just give the whole thing some patience and see how it will shake out. Thankfully both companies are covered by the same union and local so negotiations should not be too acrimonious - hopefully!

All that I am hoping for is something that is a benefit to all involved!

Be Safe!

Of course it will. It will affect all the pilots involved. Negatively for the atlas ones.

This isn't the first merger for Atlas.

Here's the potential for a huge whipsaw. I can see it now..."If you Atlas boys don't take a pay cut, we'll just move the flying over to SAI."

Let's pray to god it's not a merger.

Per release: This is an acquisition, not a merger.

So are we still going to stand together? Talk to each other on the bus? Or is that all going to change? LMFAO The things airline management's do.... Its money in their pocket! Not ours. You all know this. Hope fully this can be a great team, all for one? Maybe? We'll see? **** new guy? ok i'll stop.

Southern air had committed to 27? 28? 737 for DHL domestic hub flying. Last I heard they had only managed to crew about 5, because the T&C for the CVG based 737 were so terrible.

What is the current 737 situation exactly???

Merger will either be agreed upon by both pilot groups, or it will go to arbitration...due to newer laws passed by Congress after the AA/ TWA debacle.

That's the nomenclature a holding company uses when they buy another company. That doesn't mean there won't be a merger, which with Atlas' pilot shortage and combination of upcoming negotiations and southern's pathetic contract, is a very likely possibility.

Ahhh, if only there was a crystal ball out there! Luckily, I have all of you.

Laughed out loud at this.

Meanwhile, everyone else on these forums is thinking to themselves "who is Southern Air?"

Wonder what's going to happen to "Worldwide Logistics" and Florida West.

Additional Pay Considerations -

Guarantee -
SAI 777: 60 hours , SAI 737: 61 hours
AWW 62 hours

Basing -
SAI 777 Home Basing, SAI 737 KCVG Base
AWW Gateway Basing (tax implications and affects on pay - I don't know)

401K Matching -
SAI: None
AWW:$.50 per $1 up to 10% pilot contribution

Per Diem -
SAI:$2.00/hr (dom) $2.50/hr (int'l)
AWW: $2.40/hour or $57.60 a day


From what I heard, there still has not been anything definitively set up as to the merging of the seniority lists. I heard one scenario earlier, then heard another one this morning. The merging of seniority lists always tends to be a messy business no matter what way it works out, with bruised feelings or negative repercussions on both sides. We should all hope for something that is equitable to everyone.

I imagine that SAI will be operated as a separate entity with an inclusive equipment fence for a significant period of time.

It's probably going to be a good 3+ months before we all figure out what is going to happen and how the details will be pounded out. Speculation at this point is just that, and only gives the opportunity for animosities to breed. Let's just give the whole thing some patience and see how it will shake out. Thankfully both companies are covered by the same union and local so negotiations should not be too acrimonious - hopefully!

Pilot Hiring:
Both companies from what I have been hearing are having problems getting qualified applicants. Much can be surmised from this. With this announcement, SAI will probably not have any net changes in hiring. There was the mention of a March class, though I would not think that will happen at this point in time. I do not know too much of the AWW ops, but due to their size, what their business plans are, I would not envision much of a change in their hiring plans, so they will probably still be recruiting.

Contract Negotiations:
SAI was just starting "expedited" contract negotiations.
AWW is starting preliminary procedures to go into contract negotiations.

Pilot Rolls:
Addition of the SAI pilots to the AWW seniority list represents a 15.8% increase to the size of the crew group. So the addition of the SAI group is a nominal increase, representing a little over an 1/8th.

All that I am hoping for is something that is a benefit to all involved!

Be Safe!

The real wild card are the 777s. Flynn has got to be ready to pull the trigger or real close to it on a contract for those. Everyone says Emirates but could be something else. No real clue how Atlas views the 737 business. Have to wonder about the margins on stuff like that. Timing is also suspect as both pilot groups are in negotiations---probably looking to play each one off the other. Best of luck to 1224 and all the guys pounding the line for both groups.

Atlas' contract is pathetic also, so we are all on equal footing there.

Really Gnaw? We need big improvements to get us up to UPS/FedEx standards, but Southern isn't even on the Radar. $170 top rate for a 777 CA? Zero retirement? Windfall for our Southern brethren. Conference call going on right now. Sounds like company likes, and wants to keep the 737 ops, but ops. specs are going to be kept separate for now. That is not good at all. Huge potential for whipsawing.

Management now saying they do not want to merge the lists.

Funny, a buddy listening to the call just said they DO intend to merge the lists (at some point in the future).

Atlas has hired a lot of younger pilots over the last few years. While many already had apps out, I think most who didn't were waiting to see how negotiations were going to go. Guessing there are a lot of resumes being updated with this news.

They did seem to just contradict themselves on the call. I think ultimately Teamster by-laws re going to dictate this.

Perhaps a "hint" was given within the article pasted in the link below?

A senior aircraft-leasing company executive familiar with Amazon’s plans said the company has approached several cargo-aircraft lessors to line up the planes. The company has had talks with Air Transport Services Group (ATSG), Atlas Air and Kalitta Air, according to sources, though Kalitta Chief Executive Connie Kalitta denied he has talked with Amazon.

Because Amazon doesn’t have an Air Operator’s Certificate, which it needs to fly airplanes commercially, it would have to turn to cargo-jet lessors to launch the business.

Amazon in talks to lease Boeing jets to launch its own air-cargo business | The Seattle Times

Yeah, right.

The Atlas CBA is no FDX, or DL, etc but you really need to investigate further before you have credibility on that statement.

The issue is they can't find enough solid air frames to lease. DHL just got outbid again on two of them.

I could see Atlas selling the Florida West certificate to Amazon that has 767's on it. Really no need for it since Atlas can place 767's down in MIA for any LAN flying if they so wish to continue it.

They can only whipsaw us if we let them. With the help of Mr. Hoffa, we didn't let them use Florida West as a weapon against us as they had planned. I suggest that if we link arms, trust our 1224 leadership and behave fraternally toward each other, this could work out very well for all concerned. I'm willing to give it a try.

No aircraft.


Operators of the aircraft

Delivery date Airline Registration
11/10/2007 Japan Airlines JA633J
07/11/2010 Florida West Airlines N422LA Stored 03/2015
01/04/2015 ABSA Cargo PR-ACQ

Boeing 767 - MSN 35818 - PR-ACQ
Airline ABSA Cargo

Status : Active
Registration : PR-ACQ

Airline ABSA Cargo

Country : Brazil
Date : 1995 -
Codes M3 TUS
Callsign : Absa Cargo
Web site : LAN TAM United States - LAN.com

General information & flightlog

Serial number 35818 LN:960
Type 767-346ERF
First flight date 01/10/2007
Test registration
Plane age 8.3 years
Seat configuration

Flights recorded
RF771 LAX->MIA 19/06/11
See details - Add a flight
Engines 2 x GE CF6-80C2B2

I agree +1

My Union speaks for me!

Lets let them get a handle on this before we go bashing each other around.

I see positive things, even if it does bounce me out of the left seat for awhile.

Agreed. It is really all you can do at this point. Its not like management is going to come to the pilot groups and ask " what can we do for you to make this transition easier and better for the pilots".
Bruce Jenner probably had a better transition than pilot groups have ever had.
Good Luck my Brothers & Sisters. Stay Together.