https://www.freightwaves.com/news/fe...ls-pay-off/amp

“FedEx has parked 17 more freighter aircraft since November and relinquished options to buy seven Boeing 767 cargo jets, part of a multiyear cost initiative that helped the parcel titan to better-than-expected operating profit in the third quarter despite lower revenue.”

”Toward that end, FedEx has decided not to exercise options with Boeing for seven 767-300 freighters, according to a footnote in the company’s quarterly filings. It has 43 767 options remaining, as well as production rights for two 777s.”

Don’t shoot the messenger.

As far as 757s being parked, I heard our own Line Mx say they are parking twelve 757s by the end of April. Mostly P&W jets. Not sure if that’s fact or fiction but you can google flights between MEM, PDX, and ORD. All direct service to Victorville in the last week.

 

What you said reaffirmed the problem with FedEX in my humble opinion and that's just my own view by all means. Seniority doesn't carry much weight anymore. In the last system bid which was re-alignment bid I and many others weren't able to move anywhere even tho many junior pilots got the airplanes and the bases that we wanted. In any other airline including the regionals that wouldn't happen at all. You have guys from bid 21-01 still being trained out or waiting for training, give me another major, cargo, regional, charter or international airline that has this dysfunctional system? Anyone who bid the 777 and haven't been trained out are losing on avg about 20-30K a year in pay, how is that fair?
The thing is, the 777 and the MD are a company of its own with its own great QOL that you just talked about. For the guys on the 300, 757/767 with 70% seniority of less its pretty bad. The QOL has gone backward! I have never in my 14 years airline career with 3 different carriers gotten worst QOL as I progressed through the years.
​​​​​​​Business is changing and I completely understand. I guess the way business is changing is not what I'm looking for in an airline, and its not what I signed up for frankly.

 

The fact of the matter is the company is making us pay for voting down their garbage TA. It 100% will NOT get any better until well after a contract is ratified. If at all.

 

The check is not the standard. The regional still has the paycheck coming if that's the comparison. Business changed a lot, QOL changed treamendosly, scheduling for domestic flight is becoming more and more efficient with many trips having 3-4 legs a night and no extra pay attached to that. The company is more and more telling us with their action that they will wet lease, outsource more flying. I'm sorry but 3 years ago that's not what I signed up for. 3 years ago, every single VP walked into our class and promised a great career where the pilot of FedEx will be the backbone of the company. If they didn't lie from the get go and still lying about their intention no junior guy will be living buddy. Who wants to leave a 3 years seniority unless they are seeing no futrue in their current company. Today's email from the Scope committee highlights why junior guys are leaving. This is not about TA negotiations anymore, this is about will I ever celebrate my 30th year with FedEx? the Justin couldn't even lie and say yes lol so maybe a furlough is coming for the first time in 50 years.

 

Look, if you wonder if someone who is presumably 35 or less (based on your 30 years discussion) would not have a FedEx job at that anniversary, then nothing will convince you that it is worth staying. Change, yes, someone of your age should be super senior here but if you think the plan is to somehow move high yield B2B freight is with a hodge podge network of bellies, subcontractors and mules then I suggest you get on moving , the wave has crested and you will be starting in the trough but sounds like you think the pax world will yield you a long(er) and more prosperous career. I still do not think anyone has lied to you but if your measuring stick says otherwise, listen to your spider sense I guess.

 

I left recently for big blue. A few months short of the three year mark. So far the only regret is not doing it sooner. I’ll miss purple vacation, schedule flexibility, some of the great people I flew with, and a few other things.

Purple was my dream job, but that dream finally died with FDA closures and the gross mishandling of the DRIVE integration (firing employees with decades of loyal service and replacing them with indifferent third party contractors is not how you merge an airline and a trucking company to provide quality service). No severance package, no voluntary furlough, no reaccommodation elsewhere in the company, no notice, nada. People service profit? Lol.

So not only that, but a combination of terrible scope (747s and 737s flying domestic routes for us), dishonest management (“CGN will be staffed from MEM”), wall street gutting the place for every penny they can (billions of dollars that should have been allocated for wage increases and capex to grow and protect the business were instead diverted to dividend increases and stock buybacks), and an MEC that, up until recently, was willing to let the company do literally whatever they want in exchange for one meager pension increase for just a select percentage of the pilot group — all led to me saying “there’s too much here for us to fix in order for this to be a place where I can bet that I will have a stable career… If I’m going to work for a an unstable, poorly run carrier, I might as well drive to work.” The good news is, big blue actually seems to be run much more efficiently and thoughtfully, and I’m willing to bet (obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t have jumped) that big blue will be more stable for the next few years.

If you live within short call reserve distance for a legacy carrier and you’ve got less than 1500 pilots below you at purple, I’d seriously consider leaving. Unless management at purple can pull about 30-40 767-sized rabbits out of a hat before October, things aren’t looking great for the bottom 1000ish pilots.

Just some things to think about as you dodge random bullets while you drive to your MEM crashpad…

 

5 FedEx guys in a recent Delta new hire class...

 

Depending on what happens with retirements, resignations and what the network actually looks like on the day sort come October, this is all very likely. However, they still have a problem with the feeders as the entire reason for purple pathway is to guarantee slots at the mainline in order to attract people to fill the seats. There are no exceptions to hiring people thru that channel when you are in 4a2c, with respect to the exit clause. So if you want to furlough they need to get into 4a2c AND not hire....it i really is a conundrum so if FDX needs to furlough or try and save money in 4a2c then they can't hire either.

 

Well true but 4a2b does not take away our pay guarantee, only 2c does that. Plus a whole lot of other things kick in, so they either stop hiring or they simply do not invoke the clause and keep buying up lines. I believe that is the reason they avoided 4a2b because all that does is add layers of restrictions that would make the flying cost more and literally does them no good as the only way to cut guarantee is to get into 2c.

 

I left for a Legacy after 2+ years at Purple and also couldn't be happier. The choice is completely a personal one, but for me it was the right choice. I already have nearly double the pilots below me on my current list than I had at FedEx and am rapidly approaching the same overall seniority %.

The wave is slowing down everywhere so my one bit of advice is that if you are thinking of moving do it sooner rather than later. I lost about a month by my internal debating and that cost me nearly 300 numbers. I think at this point all the cards for FedEx are out on the table. It's either going to work for you or it isn't. If it isn't, cut bait quickly.

Without putting FedEx down I can confidently say nearly everything, except maybe vacation which is still improving under the newest contract, has been better for me in pax land. The things people tried to tell me were horrible at the pax carriers just haven't been a thing. The information was outdated or blown way out of proportion. JMHO.

Good luck