Had ground school and got a how goes it from the chief pilot here in ANC.

Very good info on how the company's doing, a few good analogies on the health of the company and a statement of no f-ing on PC's watch. Not sure why he dropped the F bomb in the letter, but he was pretty clear that was PC's intention.


I specifically asked about the over 60 individuals who had the misfortune of becoming disabled just prior to their 60th birthday, the example used was say... a shoulder injury. I asked about the miraculous progress some would be making after the rule change. Will they be returning to the front seat directly?

His answer was an emphatic "NO". "PC has stated that the only way to the window was through the panel, no exceptions." They will complete S/O training, then if they can hold it with their seniority they can bid to the window, but if they did not make it through S/O training "they would be retiring"

Pretty clear, and he mentioned JL by name as being affected by this ruling. He didn't elaborate on the who can fly together and who was a required crew member etc, over all a prety good presentation.

So that's the intel from the front office from yesterday.

blast away guys...

 

Can you elaborate on what was said about the state of the company, the future, etc...
tx Los

 

Poor, poor FoxHunter ... he might really have to go to s/o training. At least in the mean time he's getting s/o pay. I think I like that.

 

Ahhhh Yesss....Poor Poor Foxhunter.......now, if he has to qualify on the panel......then I would assume he cannot be awarded anything on any bid until he does so, meaning no front seat until bid after this one????? Poor Poor Foxhunter.........

 

Well the jist of it was we're in a matureing state. The domestic business has matured and now we're fine tuneing it. Up to this point our company has been "running" to keep up with the growth, now we've got a chance to walk for a while. Stil growing, but a breather, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. A nice analogy that put the growth in perspective.

Our earnings are at 8.8% for Express and 13% for ground.. considering the size of each of the departments that's about reasonable was his impression. These umbers are in the magazine that came out a few weeks ago for those who want the actual figures.

Company is solid, bean counters are counting beans, rampers are ramping, managers are... well, the boxes are moving. Expansion in the international theater is ambitious to say the least. Opening two domiciles, closing another, downsizing and moving the Subic operation to Clark for service of that market, two new airplanes in the stable and the complications that accompany all these changes. A daunting task that is progressing well. The change to the 777 was due the delay in the 380 that would have left a 2 year gap in necessary lift that we couldn't live with.

Like I said, an informative briefing that seemed to cover a lot of questions that I'd had. A few issues on hiring into the domiciles that is still up in the air... one thing mentioned that anyone bidding the FDA on probation should plan on living there.

That's about all I can remember.

 

Do you guys think your domestic flying will tend to shrink in the future, ie sending more volume by ground, like here at UPS? Definite int'l growth, but the domestic market is saturated, and with the cost of fuel not coming down, trucks have to look alot better to the bean counters.

 

That's not exactly right from what I could gather. If you bid a front seat and you are not a qualified S/O, you will have to complete S/O school, then as I understood it, if you have the seniority to hold it and a vacancy exists and you are available on that training letter you may go to that class date. I think the implication was letter may stretch out for a year or so. Guy's that have to complete s/o class will have a few other variables before they move up front.

Like we say about the airplanes, when it's painted purple with frieght on it and a crew headed up the ladder then it may be so... We may have to see how all the peices fall on this one.

but it will be fun to watch all the guys scrambling and jockeying for position.

 

That is until ol' DW and his cronies take up the fight at the union. I'm sure when he hears this there will be a few "secret dinners" with the company.

 

wouldn't be a conspiracy theorist would ya?

 

Thank you, sir