FWIW - The volume on after hour trading appears to be way up. Several trades in the above 65,000 share range. Either they know something or are placing a very large bet.
Volume for CAL now at 144300 and Volume for UAUA now at 10600.

I often hear about the 1400 furloughs at UAL. Just so everyone knows there is a difference between voluntary and involuntary. Many pilots took the involuntary furloughs to get the furlough pay and benefits and retire, go fly overseas for the twilight of their late 50s, or go start another career. They have no intention of returning, my guess is around half. Some age 60+ copilots were tired of being told they cant be the flying guy since capt was 60+, so they need to be the bunkie today, many of those guys said Ill take the furlough pay instead. For every guy that did these things he saved a guy at the bottom.

Just my two cents on UA furloughs

30W.....

All good points/insight.

I hear what your saying about many not having ANY intention of returning. All you have to do is look over at AA who has several more 100 pilots on the street than UAL has. I have flown with 4-5 'furloughed' AA guys who have no intention of going back.....let alone a few others who completely got out of the industry never to look back. As you pointed out, I'm sure that there are UAL furloughees who have that story as well.....shoot, I know of 2 CAL guys of the 147 who have rided themselves of this industry as well.

No matter how you put it (direct affect/or indirect affect), it's just SAD that an example of SCOPE (or lack there of) caused many of the furloughs to take place . Some have professed that the B737 'retirement' was a planned thing all along. If it was planned or not, I'm sure the 70+ seat RJ outsourcing lived to their name and facilitated the parking of those planes sooner rather than later.....thus, 'Guppy Killer'/mainline pilot positions.:mad:

Again, SAD......no matter if your outsider looking in, or an insider looking out.

I saw that volume movement as well.

Like I said before....."it's all above our pay grades". Interesting times to say the least. As someone pointed out earlier.....could be posturing to save face is the deal 'sours', or it could be movement to ram through the deal in the event a 'price' was agreed on in the Stock Trade???

Eitherway, we'll find out on the "Green" page in USAToday in the near future......Hang tight.

.................

Lets hope the new UAL/CAL pilot group stands strong on the transition agreement/new contract and insist upon the CAL scope language. For me I will never vote willingly to give up any scope. We have all seen what that gets you. We can get the 70's back but it will cost us somewhere.

30west,

I was under the impression from the union statistics that 150-200 of the furloughs were voluntary. Do you have more information that points towards 700 voluntary furloughs? My walnut-sized brain doesn't remember any more precise numbers, unfortunately.

Mish

Sorry

I have been flying, let me make some calls to get exact numbers. I remember how surprised management was on the large number of volunteers. Will get back when i have the answer.

UAL Board Said to Approve Merger With Contine
 

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...-update1-.html

UAL Board Said to Approve Merger With Continental Air (Update1)

May 02, 2010, 4:00 PM EDT

By Mary Jane Credeur and Mary Schlangenstein

May 2 (Bloomberg) -- Directors at United Airlines parent UAL Corp. approved a merger with Continental Airlines Inc. that would create the world’s biggest carrier, a person familiar with the matter said.

Continental’s board will vote later today, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public.

The companies plan to announce a deal as early as tomorrow, people familiar with the situation have said.

United, the third-largest U.S. airline, and No. 4 Continental began talks last month on a combination, reviving negotiations that Houston-based Continental abandoned in April 2008. The terms call for an all-stock transaction, according to people familiar with the matter.

Jean Medina, a spokeswoman for Chicago-based UAL, didn’t immediately return messages seeking a comment. A message left with Continental’s media office wasn’t immediately returned.