Neff is a bit of an enigma, a sole-owner micromanager who has maintained his fingers in everything, who creatively embezzled his own operation with the stock options scheme, and has been a standard bearer for old, tired, failed models (ala great game of business). My sense of him is that it isn't altruistic, but it isn't all avarice, either. I believe he did hope to make it an employee owned company in which the employees spearheaded the drive for efficiency; i think he actually believed some of it, though not such an adherent that he practiced what he preached.

His practice of kicking the can down the road, doing the bare minimum on maintenance, foisting 70 hour workweeks without overtime on mechanics, and all the other crap that he's puled, from falsification of maintenance records to a long-standing practice of CND (could not duplicate) signoffs for even serious items, to threats to personnel of firing for failure to sign off as airworthy red-tag or green-tag parts (engine making copious amounts of metal, for example) were typical, dangerous behavior that he justified as squeezing just one more leg, just one more flight...until a crew change when he'd pull it again. And again. And again. And again.

WGA has a strong core of very experienced pilots who have followed the airframes from company to company, and nobody has been able to run them all that long before collapsing. Neff's implosion isn't particularly unique: he's simply added his name to the list of the same airframes that have been throiugh one company after another. The pilots, however, many of them, are rock-solid individuals; I know many of them. I'd fly with them in a heartbeat and the acid test: I'd trust my family to them any day, in the most trying of circumstances, with full confidence; these are the people truly affected here (along with mechanics, office staff, etc). There are personnel at WGA who trained in the first MD11 simulator when it was in Long Beach, and flew the first airframes, when they still had the new-airplane smell, and who trained under and received instruction from the people who designed the aircraft. WGA also has a small eclectic element of those who will never upgrade, who couldn't fly their way out of a wet paper bag, turning the airplane into a single-pilot cockpit at times. Not many, but there are a few, and the maintenance department has a sizeable share of such...who shouldn't change the oil on a car, let alone work on the MD11.

That WGA hasn't had a spectacular wreck is a testament to the crews, who manage to operate professionally, including refusals, in spite of Neff's operation.

I know that there are operations presently which will snap up WGA pilots if and when they elect to move on, as many have already done. For those who choose not, for whatever reason, It is my sincere hope that Neff can un-**** the mess he has made, let good people do their job with the support they deserve, and that WGA will weather it's Chapter 11 and come back stronger.

Many moons ago, Connie Kalitta sold off his operation, which imploded and failed, and he bought it back for the price of ash, and built it into a very successful money maker once again. I point to that in light of Neff's purchasing his own debt. For the interim, he's secured a small injection of funds. Given his 900% profit increase during the pandemic, his soaking up of sixty five million in covid relief funds, and his stealing four hundred million and leaving it to the employees as vapor, the recent infusion of 77 million is more likely to simply become his graft or theft again, but I sincerely hope not. I hope the company thrives and comes through. I hope that everyone who is there, lands on their feet, either in their WGA uniform, or at somewhere that recognizes their value. I've no sympathy for Neff at this stage; it's up to. him to turn around and stop his practices, but at his age, and with his history, I very much doubt he will. I doubt he can. If he'd managed the profits as he made them and built the company, he wouldn't be where he is, despite the downturn in freight from the artificial pandemic high. WGA is more than capable of sustaining and being productive. It doesn't have to be this way. This is 100% the result of a sole ownership and the blame can't be shared, given the degree of micromanagement. Lay it where it's due, at Neff's feet. It truly saddens me to see.

Neff took pristine aircraft that were immaculate when received from Lufthansa, and turned them into rat traps with poor maintenance, shuffling of parts, failure to fix, eye-poppingly large lists of deferrals and MEL and CDL items. Lufthansa managed to maintain those airplanes like new, and it took almost no time for Neff's practices to trash them. Again, this never had to be: it was the product of decisions. Those decisions can be changed, as can the way debt it paid, maintenance is done, freight is garnered, business relationships forged and maintained. What is now, can be fixed and does not need to be; WGA can be a good company; it's got good people, it's got capable aircraft if they're maintained. This is all Neff. I feel for the crews and personnel who have given service above and beyond and who have continued to do their part, only to be smacked in the face by Neff's practices. Neff isn't the tragedy; how all this affects the loadmasters and pilots, mechanics, instructors, office personnel, and others, is the tragedy. I wish them the best.

 

Cool story bro, but you don't seem to know the history of WGA, nor the pilots who "flew the first airframes" and so on.
Look up the launch customer of MD11, tell me how many of that nationality flew for WGA, and look up the history of the WGA planes.
Also, how many former Lufthansa birds did they end up getting, 2?

 

Many WGA crews are finding themselves locked out of hotels and having to use their own credit cards to cover costs, with the promise of future reimbursement.

 

That's an indication that you should JS home immediately, before they turn that off too.

 

Another warning sign, if it happens, is direct deposit pay not being made. (In the old days we would say paychecks bouncing.)

 

There is a one months pay bonus being promised to anyone who commits to stay for 12 months from a Neff email.

 

Yeah, a little airline called VIA airlines pulled the same thing right before they shutdown operations. I know of at least 1 person that lost out on almost 1 months pay because he tried to be a nice guy and believed till the end they wouldn’t screw him. This is NEVER a good sign.

 

Like Dera said, “cool story bro,” sorry but the “ Connie” comment is so far unrelated to what Neff has done. Connie sold American International Airways to Kitty Hawk Airways. Kitty Hawk burned Connie in the deal which were mostly 747 classics at the time, he then sued Kitty Hawk, was returned 6 747 classics and renamed the airline Kalitta Air. That was all in the year 2000, That’s it, nothing similar to the dealings what the Neffs have done with Southern and WGA and so on.

 

I'm not your "bro." It wasn't a story. I'm intimately familiar with Connie's story, thanks. I never mentioned Southern, nor was it part of anything I said. I put "dera" on the ignore list a long time ago, couldn't care less what she has to say.

So far as Connie goes, he has a long history of buying low and selling high, and building up, not falling down, so really, the opposite of Neff, but thats' the point. Private, sole owners who micromanage, both in the air freight ACMI business, one whom builds success, the other of whom drains and siphons the blood out of his operation until it's time to go away. WGA was to be his redemption, but his is a study opposite of Kalitta, of what not to do, of how to destroy and rob blind. The point, as you clearly missed it, is that it needn't be that way. The drain-circling, spiraling slow death of his operation is his own doing that could be reversed; it's always been possible. All that remains now is to watch it die, or to see him decide to do it right and recover. The point? Recovery IS still possible.

Did all the millions he's siphoned away simply vanish? Will the seventy-seven million go the same way? If it didn't exist, he could have fielded it anyway and salvaged. The decision to fly with so many deferred items, to so badly maintaina ircraft that they're grounded for so long, so frequently, and still carry so many deferrals when they fly, isn't one borne of economy and efficiency, but cheapness and a drive to pocket what should have been used to keep the lights on. Losing one contract after another, bailing on contracts for temporary UPS and FedEx golden geese, and establishing a reputation for failure to pay bills and unreliability, have hurt the brand. Very unnecessary, all fixable, but will he?

Not when he's got employees paying for things with the untrustworthy promise of reimbursement. This isn't new, either; the older hands there will know of times when they've had to pull out a card to put fuel in the airplane, and there are one or two who will recall using their own card. Tires on the company van, we'll reimburse you right away...to turn into months of nothing? Not a recent invention in Neffworld. Not necessary. Pay for that hotel room, we'll pay you back, should be simply, use your company card and turn in the receipt, if they can't manage to properly book the room. Personally, I've seen that show before as the final agonal breath passed the company's dying lips; unnecessary deaths, but for failure of senior micromanagement and the internal siphoning away of the finances and lifeblood of the operation.

Neff isn't the spitting image of Connie Kalitta, but the other side of the coin; he's the reverse. There's an unspoken contract between employer and employee: you do your part to make the company go, and I'll do mine. The employees have upheld their part of the bargain. Neff? You break it, I'll fix it. You go there, I'll bring you back. Trust me. I'll gladly give you two hamburgers tomorrow...just float me today. Check's in the mail. Dog ate my homework, and the sixty five million in covid relief funds, but if you can see yourself clear to stomach me for another year, I'll reward you then, after taking away your longevity bonuses to give you a mythical promised bonus a few more years down the line....

Promises, promises, unkept.

 

Promises, promises. Blow in my ear.

Danger, Will Robinson, Danger.