What was the justification on this?

 

A letter binding the holding company. There was no language preventing AirTran from pulling a Freedom or GoJets (or Eastern/Continental for that matter).

 

Heck if I know, I don't do contracts! Doesn't seem much different than our current contract though.

Does anybody have preventions against that?

 

Yes, AirTran.

 

What does the scope clause say about aircraft 75 seats and under? I read what it says about 77-86...

 

Alrighty...

I'm going to try an give a synopsis of our scope, but if I fail miserably (very likely), I hope another tranny will come on and correct it.

Under our old scope, we had:

• Unlimited ASM with turboprops of any size
• 20% of ASM with 'other' jet aircraft 50 and up to 70 seats
• No language binding the holding company to AirTran. The GoJets/Freedom debacle.

Under the new scope, we have:

• Side letter binding holdings to AirTran (no transfer of assets or dba's)
• raised the max RJ size to 86 seats, but limited it to 15 A/C. Those planes still count towards the 20% ASM total
• No furlough, terminaton clause as related to smaller jets on property
• Jelly of the month club

Here is Executive Summary of the Scope Section that ALPA put out.

 We achieved a holding-company side letter that prevents AirTran Holdings from avoiding the obligations contained in our scope clause.

The holding-company letter in the current CBA states that AirTran Holdings will “not take action that would cause or permit Airways to be in violation of its obligations under the Scope Clause.” Nowhere in the letter does it state that AirTran Holdings itself has an obligation under the scope clause. The new letter, however, combined with the new language in Section 1, binds AirTran Holdings itself to our scope Section.

If our contract does not contain holding-company scope, then AirTran Holdings could purchase or create another airline and operate the carrier separately, without merging seniority lists, and without operating the other airline under our contract. Our flying and AirTran Airways assets (such as aircraft and gates) could be transferred to the other company held by Holdings. Obviously, this creates enormous threats to our own job security. This is why it is essential that we have the holding company side letter that was achieved in this TA.

This section contains some of the strictest limitations on outsourced flying among the major airlines. First, only 15 aircraft with 77-86 seats may be outsourced. This number may increase by 1 airplane for every 3 mainline aircraft that are added to the fleet, up to an absolute maximum of 20. This encourages mainline growth. In addition, all outsourced flying is limited to 20% of system ASMs, or 15% of system ASMs if mainline flying is not growing on a year-to-year basis. Again, these restrictions encourage the company to grow mainline flying year over year.

The NC provided very limited relief in the area of larger RJs and turboprops. In the grand scheme of things, achieving the holding-company protections is far more important than the allowance for a small number of 86-seat aircraft.

The limit on the max number of 86-seat aircraft is a hard limit. No matter how many ASMs AirTran operates, or how many mainline aircraft they add, the number of 86-seat aircraft outsourced cannot exceed 20. It would not be economical for the company to operate such a small fleet of 86-seat aircraft. If the fleet were to be larger than the limits in the TA’d section, then the company has expressed that they would want the aircraft to be flown at mainline, which is what the TA’d language requires.

Under current book, the holding company may purchase another airline and operate the airline separately. Under the TA, if the acquired (or acquiring) company has aircraft with greater than 86 seats, then a merger is required. In addition, the merger of operations must be completed in no more than 18 months. ALPA merger policy has also been added, which provides additional protections in the event of a merger with another ALPA carrier.

ASM and hull restrictions are tighter than the other major airline contracts, and we have also added merger, acquisition, successorship, notification and information sharing, and holding-company protections that are either equal to or better than the scope clauses at our major airline peers.

 

Seems like a nice improvement.

Anyone know what the average hours paid are for AirTran Pilots? Not the average hours flown, but the average hours paid in a month?