Wow. The DOJ is scared of a rich money launderer now? Aren't they all rich?? Jesus man, listen to yourself. Lose the hate and conspiracy theory, the British are NOT coming after all. We won the war. Reeelax!

 

Not scared of him, but there is massive political pressure from many angles. Regulators and lawmakers will let things slide as long as someone is a glorious "LCC" because regardless of their stance on labor, they ALWAYS benefit more constituents by promoting cheap labor (number of pax) than protecting the few within labor (number of airline employees). There is also massive foreign pressure from our "ally" that we have a "special relationship" with to let VX stay around and grow to critical mass. In addition to that, even though VX is diverting capacity from higher paying jobs to lower (yes I know, you upgrade in 15 minutes which is a "raise") its still jobs in a tough economy in an extremely influential state and concentrated in an extremely influential district of a senior congress critter. There is a ton of political pressure to look the other way and let VX keep growing.

I'm sure you like your company and if it makes it you will be an uber genius for having gone there, seniority jumping the entire industry by 20 or 30 years compared to just about anywhere else. That's the lure of a start up, and why the kool aid flows so deeply within them.

 

Some updates for you. Upgrades take 3-4 years at present; if you want to sit reserve or not. Most pilots here came from 20-30 years of failed carriers just like myself. Plenty of time and experience in the wrong jobs. We didn't come here to drink kool aid, we came here to get off of unemployment and feed our families. And like the legacies and else where, we have a large share of Regional captains that came here, because god forbid they were tired of Mesa and the likes.

Save the insults in our general direction, just because I don't believe your boogie man stories. I know for a FACT that 99% of your post is incorrect. I have better sources than a friend of a friend of a VP said. Lol. Have a good day man, it's Sunday go spend time with the family! Every now and then my wife bans me (mercifully) from APC and FI, and I spend about 3 happy years in exile. I'm starting to remember why.

 

Isn't one of the VX planes named "Three If By Air"?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30580063@N02/3384518990/

Imagine if a JAL plane jokingly referred to Pearl Harbor on one of their planes.

Stay classy Branson.

 

C'mon Tim,

Fred has always been very impressed with Fred - just ask him. He is a total clown. Went to LAX after 9-11 to hear him address the base employees on DALs plight - he basically said all DAL employees are lucky we have Leo and him to run the company. He should have said "...run the company into the ground going bonkers on a 50 seat RJ binge."

Scoop

 

It would not surprise me at all if Fred were somehow involved with Delta Air Elite, through Flex Jet. I'm just glad we have yet another outsouced flying division, for our most special 'High Value Customers', so they don't have to fly on Mainline.

Go Fred Go!

Really, please, just go...

 

..and we got to pay for parking those with our new TA! What a great deal!

 

Honestly, what do you think the odds of VX being around in 2022 are?

 

Not friend of a friend, but directly from the (higher than a) VP in question. You can't possibly pretend you blew through half a billion dollars in a few years with just a few airplanes and have perpetually been down to your last 20 million or so every quarter while losing more than that almost every quarter anything other than "royal" intervention.

If you are as experienced (and old) as you say, then you are a relatively short timer and I do understand you running the numbers on things and realizing that VX is likely the final stop for you. For others they are playing the "I'll be in the top 500 of a mega major one day" but whatever. Its all part of the very same labor busting longevity shredding churn the industry is made of. The cycle will always continue. Start up a new airline, pay everyone first year everything on a drastically reduced pay and benefits package, get new airplanes leapfrogging in technology and ammenities, wash, rinse, file bankruptcy because now your costs are higher and here comes another start up and repeat. I get it, I just don't like it.

Don't h8 the playa though, its the game. Rich people will never, ever, get tired of playing with airplanes, and pilots will never not take the best deal they can get at any given time. Some cling to a fantasy that mass refusal to work by all pilots will make the labor corporate churn go away but that's the ultimate pipe dream. That will never happen nor should it even be a goal. Pure fantasy. But the many, many hundreds of aircraft on the order books for so called LCC's and present and future start ups while other airlines stagnate, shrink and fade away make this very much a zero sum game. If VX succeeds to the extent it strives to, the same amount of jobs will be lost at other carriers to provide lower paying and much more junior jobs there. That's just how it works.

I guess in that regard we're like these guys:

We're both trying to run the other out of a job, and to deny that is either a flat out lie or a hyper-idealized delusion. There is not room for all the present ULCC's, much less future ones, and the existing legacy airlines. Something has to give. "Just feeding my family" will be the ink the winners write the outcome of history in.

 

This is the best summary of our industry I've seen in awhile. When people ask me what I think of VX, JB, Spirit, ect., I never quite know how to answer, but from now on I'm just going to paste this on my phone, and show it to them. I don't hold any grudges against my fellow pilots for taking these jobs, but I do resent the system that creates them, and keeps our compensation and work rules so poor. I have a friend who is younger and works for JB. He makes more than I do (I work for a legacy carrier- it doesn't matter which). It's hard for him to understand that one of the reasons my pay is so low, is because of the success of his company- which got successful for the reasons stated above by gloopy. I don't hold it against him, and I don't want to see his pay go down, but some day (possibly soon), he will be in my shoes watching some other ULCC start-up undercutting his company and putting downward pressure on his pay. Hopefully he'll be able to understand better then and maybe work towards a real solution. Going by history (and all the ridiculous arguments on this forum), I don't think the chances are too good.