Thanks. I see that 13x60=12x65, so same annual minimum as ABX, but you get home base tickets on top of that. I was curious if there was a hidden advantage some where, like 13x65 or even a 12x76 MMG we weren’t seeing.

What sorts of scheduling, duty day, vacation, per diem, and travel/hotels improvements did you get?

 

So did you guys vote in the new Contract?

 

Exactly the same as their last contract. ATSG said they would give them planes instead of giving them to ABX if they accepted a low ball offer.

 

This is how whipsaw works. ATSG has perfected it. ATI and ABX are moving closer to parity at an equilibrium point that's discounted compared to the rest of the industry.

At least it's stable. Amerijet pilots win a big raise then fleet shrinkage and furloughs follow. 21Air pilots feel immune to this phenomenon but that hubris may prove disastrous.

Fun job, lousy career. Same as it ever was.

 

Oh thats what whipsaw is. Thank you Captain Obvious. Thats your definition of a lousey career? Fly widebody aircraft, retirement, 4M + in 401k, great schedules with protection. 350 ro 400k a year. ATI set the bar below ground level when they signed their last contract to keep airplanes from ABX. Their QOL items, disability, scheduling rules still suck.

 

Who is making 350-400k per year working for ATSG?

 

Any captain at the top of the pay scale who can pick up an extra 27.8 credit hours or more every month gets to $350k, and 41.1 gets to $400k. If you live local and pick up 200% R1s when they come across the wire, it only takes three of those every month to make it happen. There are several legacy captains who are chafing at the 23 hour open time limit, so I'm sure many of them are touching $350k with some premium DOF here and there. And don't forget that sweet, sweet bonus cash we're getting now!

 

I'm not going to argue that isn't decent money. I'm glad it's available to those who have slogged through 20 years of ACMI uncertainty.

I'm still curious how unicorn that is? How many captains live within reasonable driving distance of CVG and have the seniority to get that many extra hours? How many days total worked and how many nights away from home would that be?

I like to compare airlines by seniority bands plus a reasonable guess for how long it takes to get there. Lifetime earnings are probably what matter the most to a prospective new hire.

 

even $280k-$310k with two weeks off in a big block every month is still a sweet job. Bid right and get yourself a month off without using a single vacation day.

 

I don't know the exact number of captains living within driving distance of CVG, but it's probably at least a dozen, and you don't even have to be all that senior to pick up a couple extra days a month. You just have to be quick on the phone when the emails advertising last-minute 200% trips come out. If they're R1s, it's not even necessarily a night away from home - just half a day at the R1 hotel. Since the introduction of the optimizer, there seem to be a larger number of lines with Cincinnati appreciation days built in, so you can recover a few days a month at home that way. There are some pairings with fatigue problems that also create Cincinnati appreciation days. We do 16 or 17 work days per month, so total days worked would be 19 to 20. And all of this isn't even accounting for some of the scheduling tricks you can do with our flight credit bank and schedule adjustment periods.