USA 3000 to shut down.
 

The pilot group at USA 3000 received their certified letters. Ops will cease on or about Jan 08 2012. It's too bad. An airline with such potential was run so badly. Never had a chance. Best of luck to the guys over there.

That sucks. A few friends from my former company went there. And despite the inept management and slightly suckish pay, it didn't sound like too bad of a job for guys that lived in base. Doing U.S. to Mexico/Caribbean out and back/day trips 3 days a week sounded like it was easy

Sucks to hear this. Sorry

I was on a layover in Mexico City back in August, & heard this from a fellow crew member. He was there while on furlough from NWA, & told me several of his friends who were still there were to be furloughed due to USA 3000 going out of business.

Very sorry to hear, & good luck to all those effected. :(

they were our friendly competition when i was at Champion I too am sorry to hear this.

Never good news to hear about any carrier closing down and putting good people out of work.

There are excellent opportunities for Airbus crews overseas paying respectable salaries too.

Good luck to all and you may secure employment elsewhere with respectable terms and conditions.

And the hits just keep on comin'...

Truly sorry guys and gals. Hang tight for a year or so. As previoulsy said, try overseas, tons of work with if you have time in type.

Very sorry to hear that. A320-wise, I believe both Spirit and Virgin America will be hiring throughout next year. And everyone else the year after that...

Really too bad...I've flown several times on 3000 and really enjoyed the experiences. The crews were always very pleasant - I especially appreciated it before I started my current job and was just some random guy talking aviation. Best of luck to everyone.

It was suppose to be Jan. 2013.

Want to know how mean Steve Harfst (current CEO) is? For over the last year he published the fleet phase out timeline in the monthly newsletter he sent out. Every month it was the last thing each employee saw. Now they don't even honor that :rolleyes:

At one point in 2008 they had 14 A320s (12 + 2 from Thomas Cook).

A lot of questionable calls within the operation as well. U3K has F:WZ for flight planning and for those who don't know, its the latest and greatest flight planning tool that costs outrageous amounts of money. Nice idea but not for five airplanes. They also had an ETOPS program for 168 seat A320's in the works. Spent all the money to be ready for TableTOPS and then it was subsequently cancelled.

Great little airline with an amazing group of people. I have a lot of friends there. Thankfully most of them saw the writing on the wall and already started jumping ship. Heck there was one A320 capt that left to become an Eagle FO about 9 months ago.

That's too bad! The good news is..... TONS of A320 work abroad - some even offer rotations back to the US, and pay is definitely better than in the US.

Any brothers and sisters out there with 320 type and time. Malaysian airlines is hiring as we speak, 12000$ a month.. great benefits and time off. Fly Dubai also is hiring current qual 320 drivers with the same pay and benefits plus great housing. Hope that helps anyone is looking currently.

Good luck to all.

Korean Air is hiring non-type rated A330 captains provided you have something like 2000 hours of A320 PIC time. Air Asia has hired at least one Frontier FO as a captain, even though he didn't have any PIC in the Airbus. Theree are jobs in China that pay $17,000 a month in the A320.

Just an option, but probably not feasible for most people.

Good luck to you all.

It was unfathomable for me to even consider going abroad until my airline went under. Funny how perspectives change...

The hardest thing about flying overseas is first getting on that airline flight abroad. The second hardest thing, especially if you've been abroad for a while, is getting on that airline flight back home to start with a US airline. You'll look at that starting pay and be offended.

Always a great experience jumpseating with them, sorry to hear the news.

Best of luck to all those affected. Keep your chins up and STAY CURRENT.

Dont let the magic 6 month clock tick by...

Yes! Very important!!! If you're gonna go overseas, YOU MUST BE CURRENT!!!

Most require you to have had the sim done at least within the last 12 months, preferably within the 6 months, and having flown the airplane within the last 3-6 months.

Can you "quote" the WHOLE letter?!!! :rolleyes:

Sorry to hear. My company is hiring give me a PM and I will try to help. We flew right along side you guys at several places.

As a victim of the downsizing and shutdown of U3K, thanks for all of the kind words. I spent 2+ years there and loved it. Great crews, fun flying, lots of time off, and way too much food.

I was fortunate enough to land on my feet at Virgin. Most of the U3K guys I still keep in touch with have gone to or are looking at going to Asia. There are a bunch of us here at Virgin, and I know many have gone to Spirit as well.

I had a bad feeling about Harfst when he showed up on property and immediately starting taking vacations (he is quite the skier I hear...). Most of us got the feeling pretty quickly that he was hired to shut the company down.

Not quite following you here. What do you need qouted?

Hey, did you go to Qatar first and then Virgin, or am I confusing you for somebody else?

Just pointing out that there is a LITTLE hope if you read the ENTIRE letter.
(i.e. by "Dec. 15"....) :confused:

We saw a USA3000 A320 in FLL the other day, it was using the Vision callsign. We both thought that was interesting. Best of luck to all those effected, I've also done the "abroad" thing, not such a bad gig once you get used to it, hard to give up the money on the way back.

Sorry to see this.

If any USA 3000s guys are interested, Emirates is desperate for qualifed pilots right now. Hiring 500-600 this year alone.

Air Arabia, Etihad, and Qatar are also all hiring.

Best of luck,


Typhoonpilot

Interviewed with Qatar but did not go due to family issues at the time.

It was subcontracted by Vision to fly a trip

Damn shame. I know the guy who built the airline from a blank sheet of paper. He too was made a lot of promises...then "junior" needed a job. He pretty much called this several years back.

Best of luck guys.

who's this guy you speak of??

What a waste. I guess the only good thing is the employees know what's coming----instead of showing up for work and being told "We're bankrupt; you're furloughed".

would that be a Tim??

Are they done now?? hope guys get other slots quickly