Quote:
Originally Posted by TexAg11
I’ve spent a little time thinking about this flow going away in bankruptcy stuff, and I just don’t know why it would. Getting rid of flow doesn’t provide any cost savings. If it’s gone, then AAG only helps the Spirits and Frontiers as all their WO regional pilots have a mass exodus. I’m pretty sure everyone at a WO walks that stay or spirit tightrope as some point. Or if not one of those carriers then just the highest paying regional. The WOs basically don’t need a recruiting department because of it. And my understanding is that the training over at AA is mostly seamless for the flows, while street hires and military tend to be the ones needing extra, so the training dept tends to like it. (Not that a flow is a better pilot, just the FOM and procedures and familiarity etc)
Not glorifying flow or saying that it’s not gonna be a decade...just speaking to the “flows gone in bankruptcy” point.
Wouldn’t mind hearing some other perspectives.
A bigger problem might not be that flow might be gone in bankruptcy, but that Envoy might be gone in bankruptcy along with one or both of the other WOs. If flying demand remains low that AAG has to reduce its regional footprint, they still have to honor their contracts with Skywest, Republic, and Mesa. They also have to honor scope with APA. One of the easiest ways to accomplish that would be to shut the doors on a WO or two or three.
It won't be long, but I imagine we'll soon see a MEC letter saying that Pedro approached the union saying that AAG needs to consolidate regional flying to just one WO, just like what is happening with Expressjet. If we don't agree to XYZ concessions, then AAG will move all our planes and flying to PSA or PDT. It won't really matter, though. One of the pilot groups will undercut the other two for survival. The others will be given "preferential hiring" at the remaining WO, and the guys who just missed the flow will be invited to start over at the bottom of the survivor's list, just like United hoped the TSA pilots would follow the 145s they flew to bottom of the Expressjet list. No crystal ball, just looking at history repeating itself.
Just throwing out another perspective.