FliFast

Maybe Pork Belly Ted will have a stage name from the penitentiary.

Biff,
I'll try to answer your questions, but if we get too far off on a tangent, PM me so as to keep this thread on track with pilot hiring.

Would the sort facility at ANC have to double to accomondate the growth associated with 600 pilots ?

With respect, the real question to ask is what will those additional pilots be needed for. Will it be for additional cities ? a new product to be offered ? a satellite base for an Asian hub so as not to base pilots on foreign soil like FDX is doing in Subic and soon HKG ?

For additional cities, the short answer is yes it will need to double. If the new cities are in Asia then the "feed" coming in from the lower 48 will presumably all show up at around the same time, will be sorted, then loaded and sent West to Asia. The key is, every airplane you send West to Asia, has to return to ANC in a timely fashion to ensure it's delivery elsewhere or it's connection with other aircraft to points beyond SDF/ONT/RFD etc.

New product offering. Let's say UPS offer's a new 3 day air product, or same day air product; essentially a product that would generate a new pushback bank. This would be timed such that the arrivals and departure of this product's bank would not interfere with the current banks and would incur only a small expansion of the sort facility and more shifts to work at the facility.

Lastly, if the projection of 600 pilots is used to satellite them to a foreign pilot base, then it would have little effect on the current sort facility.

In terms of pre-sorting the cans. I thought most of the cans are presorted when they depart SDF. I just dont know the methodology of which boxes go in which cans.

With regards to de-peaking the sort facility, by making rolling arrival banks to alleviate parking congestion. This is a great idea. However, since we offer time specific products, I'm not sure this is a reality. In other words, in order to deliver the packages by 1030am, ALL of the packages have to leave ANC Eastbound to SDF by 8pm ANC and so all the arrivals from Asia have to arrive by 6pm ANC time. I may be totally off base, but our time specific products are based on all the packages getting to a sort facility by a certain deadline, and then having the planes loaded up, and arriving at destination by a certain time.

ANC is unique in that most of the airplanes do not sit idle during the daytime, they fly around the clock. It's just as important to ANC as it is to SDF that the MD11 departing HKG leaves ontime.

Summed up, if the 600 total pilots are for new cities, then yes we would need a larger sort facility. Remember, we only have 240 or so MD/744 pilots based in ANC today. If basing them is for a new product line or for satellite-basing then no, I dont see the sort facility doubling. However, in my humble opinion, I think ANC's pilot growth will be in the form of new cities and new trips, not a new product or remote basing of crews.

Just my two cents worth...I'm sure other opinions prevail.

Roberto

Good points FliFast. One more thing to mention. With enough volume, some flights will depart Asia that don't need to be sorted in ANC. For instance, two planes leave HKG, one with volume for ONT and one for SDF. They only stop in ANC for fuel and a new crew.

Winged Wheeler

It is striking how junior the ANC domicile is--I suspect it will be moreso in the future. Were UPS to furlough, or threaten to do so, at some point in the future they would have to cut pretty deep in ANC before they could get to any other domiciles.


WW

atpcliff

Hi!

I was reading the UPS/Atlas thread, and this one.

Apparently, UPS needs 600 pilots in ANC, and they need 747s.

Atlas has 747-400s, and slots for 747-8s, and Atlas has about 600 pilots.

Hmmm....


cliff
ABQ

FliFast

ANC should be renamed the Probation Domicile.

The Anchorage Chief Pilot and the ACPs are Probation Officers.

Ok back to my cave....sorry for the interruption.

FF

Flyfishing

I spoke with my ACP today/last night in ONT and he said he hadn't heard anything about hiring being suspended through 2008. His understanding was in the most recent bid new hires were not needed to fill vacancies but in future bids that may not be the case.

UPSFO4LIFE

Someone last week at UPS may have come to the conclusion that they would not need to hire in 2008. Give it a few weeks or months and someone else will decide they do need to hire in 2008.

Nashmd11

P. Donahue and B. Thompson sad to say, there is No hiring planned at this time for 2008. They should know. This because were buying Atlas. My guess to why we are suspending hiring.

UPSFO4LIFE

If they are saying that, then we will for sure be hiring next year.

Tigerpilot1995

One thing I have learned in my very short tenure here is that plans change at a moments notice at UPS. Sometimes with no notice and no plan is too big to change....regardless of the cost.