I have been saying this since we were hired but was laughed at like the town fool. Hope I am wrong too........

Biggs--You are entitled to your opinion, however wrong it may be. I have not ever read such garbage laced with interesting truths to make it sound a little better. The world economy has changed. The rest of the world does follow the US economy, but it is nothing like it's been over the last 20 years. China/India still have double digit growth rates and we have to import nearly everything. Supply chain mgt and just in time inventory is the business standard and the flow of goods from China will be on planes since sea takes too long. Our industry precipitates any quantifiable (sp) measure of the economy, which also means that we will benefit from the recovery before it happens.

I can't believe you used the F word. Have you seen how much open time is out there? We are picking up loads of JAs and OT. If the company issued a furlough JA and OT would stop or nearly stop and we would be 20% understaffed immediately. Enjoy the fact that you have the best Part 121 job out there. UPS is not an airline and won't furlough like the patheticly managed pax carriers. We all can complain all we want about the shortcomings of UPS management. But the fact remains is that we promote from within and UPS mgt has a sense of ownership unlike any other corporate culture out there. My point is they will not slash and burn and/or gut the company like the pax carriers have. I'll give you a month's pay if we furlough!

The bright side is that this is not the PAX side of things. Unlike the PAX side, UPS cannot just stop certain routes because volume is low. They still have to protect the core business routes. This goes not only for domestic, but for international as well. If you have a 50% drop in volume to say, STL, you still have to provide service to STL. You can't just pull out because you are not making money on the route. You also can't really truck it because then you would miss service. I do think there may be some flights that no longer operate, but with the possiblilty of the DHL deal, I think furloughs are not realistic. Only time will tell, but I think we will all remain employed for years to come.

On the Bar and Grill there was a thread on this very topic. Flight was cancelled due to high fuel costs or something like that.

Yes we will have to import but who says it will be on UPS/FEDEX planes. Open skies is coming to Asia fast.

older but good.... Association for Asia Research- Benefits of an open skies aviation agreement

here is the gist of it:

Thus, Open Skies agreements have actually decreased the number of European destinations that U.S. carriers serve using their own equipment, while services by European carriers to U.S. cities have increased. While the United States has fewer Open Skies agreements in Asia and the Western Pacific, a similar pattern is emerging: U.S. carriers have taken advantage of Open Skies to establish codeshare arrangements with carriers in Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and New Zealand, and not to fly their own aircraft between the Open Skies partner’s homeland and third countries. As a measure of the success of the agreements for our foreign partners, none of the 60+ countries with which we have Open Skies agreements has ever sought to amend or withdraw from an OS agreement.

Like I said, you will see some flight cancelled here and there. Instead of 2 SDF flights to ATL, some nights you might only get one. Also, the downsizing or upsizing, however you want to look at it begins in Aug. with the reduction of some RFD flights and upsizing some 300's to the MD. UPS is spending a crapload of money in SDF on worldport. If volume continues to decline, the other hubs like RFD could continue to take a hit. I would expect many schedule changes over the next year or so as they try to save money and run more efficiently. They are still gonna have to operate most of the flights though.

I heard we will eventually resume hiring and get more aircraft. We'll also retire some older aircraft. Also heard some guys will turn 65 and choose to stay on as engineers.

There's a chance too the price of crude might continue to climb. This could have an effect on how this all plays out. Also heard we might open some additional domiciles.

There's also a rumor that having a Democrat in the White House might change things for UPS. This is all just rumor and innuendo though.

One thing is for sure. Choosing to have your V-File sent to a Gateway does not guarantee its delivery. That, makes perfect sense.

Tipsy

It's also rumor it may rain somewhere tomorrow.

That's not right! It's age discrimination! Call your congressman...:eek:

That's just a reminder that you are an hourly employee ... not salary. ;)

:D:D