XJT news
 

A friend and former college buddy of mine informed me that some of our former graduates now employed by Express Jet that he keeps in touch with are concerned about furlough. Apparantly, Express Jet is in financial trouble and is considering asking employees for voluntary leaves of absence.

Since I heard this secondhand, can anyone elaborate on this?

Dude ...OLD news been on this board for a couple weeks.

Hmmm. I just went back two weeks and couldn't find a thread on the topic. Do you have a link?

It's on the main page of Airline Pilot Central. If you pull up the Expressjet page(the one with pay, hiring info, and new news) I believe it's at the top. At least it used to be.

No furlough worries, we were offered COLA's (Company Offered Leave of Absence). We retain seniority and longevity and keep our medical benefits and travel benefits. I requested one, but didn't get it since they went fairly senior. Mesaba and some other regionals have been doing this for months. We have let attrition take our numbers down. We are currently at 2800 pilots from 3100 last fall and we continually lose about 40 a month.

As for financial trouble, we are fine. Most of our business is profitable and our March load factor for our Branded flying was 73%, which we either broke even or made a profit. According to our SEC filing we are currently hedged at $2.40/gallon for 70% of our fuel in 2008, on our Branded side, where we pay for our own fuel. I'm not really worried at all.

I just flew with a guy that was on his last trip before his summer off. Kind of like the "summer of george".

A friend in training dept guessed next FO class might be Oct or Nov, but added that is only a guess. It could be sooner if numbers warrant.

Bingo!

I was pretty concerned about my job after the COLA announcement, but it's nice to know that we're down to 2800 pilots with 274 airframes. Right where we should be for now, though a couple bases are a bit overstaffed on the FO side (*cough*IAH*cough*). I think the COLA news made quite a few people jump ship, and I wouldn't be surprised if a good number of those taking the COLAs don't come back either. Buh-bye!

As a former XJTer (7 yrs ) I wish you all luck, but have doubts about this statement.

It's all in the SEC filings. And the recent Load Factor for March is part of the reason our stock has shot up this past week. Fuel won't affect us as much as others, we got a good guy in planning hedging right now.

Keep drinking the koolaid....it makes reality go down so much smoother...

easy killer, though I agree that Branded is hurting, no need to be like this, after all, if you think your gig flying the C-550 will last forever, your out of your mind..........

For the love of Buddha, Allah and Jebus combined saab, do you really think I'm bagging on XJT or its pilots???

Don't say things like that when he's down and defensive Boiler ;) LoL

nah, but go easy on the guy, hes pulling for a company that is being kicked while its down.

I, for one, and rollin' around on the floor.

Great "combo" bro!

Optimism is good, Lord knows everybody in this industry needs some...but how can one honestly say "As for financial trouble, we are fine" and "Fuel won't affect us as much as others" in the current environment?

In case it hasn't been made blatantly obvious in the past, I am 100% for Expressjet and really wish nothing but the best of success for your company and your pilot group.

I agree, the price of FUEL is KILLING everyone, especially the 50 seat jet :(

Couple other things were in play. But 1 company already proved this point not too long ago.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...hnoesiy6-1.gif

In reality I have no doubt XJT will do fine. Things are going to be rough for all airlines in the near future though. Good luck to all of us in this goofy industry.

I just don't get guys when they say stuff like this. I was pointing out the fact we hedged fuel at $2.40/gallon, for all of 2008, on all the flying that we have to pay for it. If this somehow doesn't help us, if we didn't hedge, please explain how. Last time I checked fuel was at $112/barrel, so if we didn't hedge at 70% we would be sitting in a much worse position.

I'm sorry, I don't believe in being pessimistic, because that will just drag the company down. As for just ignoring the truth of a company going down, I'm not advocating that either. When I state actual facts for XJT and you state we are in trouble and then state no facts to back it up? I'm sorry but you need to do a little better than that to prove your point.

At times I owned thousands of shares of XJT and I follow it closely. At not point has it shot up. Also look at the amount being traded on an average basis.http://chart.finance.yahoo.com/c/1y/x/xjt

For someone who's followed XJT stock closely you should know that the March load factors were released 2 days ago and wouldn't show on a chart with a range of a full year.

I know you're the board troll, but don't be stupid.

http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/w?s=XJT

Would a 5 day be better? 2 days makes all the difference in the world. Look at WM or BAC. Look at BIDU. There is no "jump" in stock price. Up 10 cents. Congrats. Now with the average daily volume of around $1mil being traded see how easy it is to dump those shares you just got rich off of. I'm not trying to be rude but lets not try and pass the kool-aid around offering drinks to others here or start personal attacks.

I said this past week. The stock is up 14% since Monday. I'm not talking about the past year. I was talking about our March Branded numbers.

As for the past month here are some more staggering numbers for you...
XJT: +44.3%
PNCL: -15.6%
RJET: -1.3%
MESA: -73.2%
SKYW: -7.7%
DAL: -10.2%
CAL: +4.8%

Now in a time where regional flying could be reduced by the majors, I like the fact we can somewhat have some leverage against CAL now. Please tell me again how your facts on XJT is not looking good since March, since that is what I was talking about.

I think XJT has done pretty well lately.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...102/stocks.jpg

shall I continue Toilet?

By all means please do I'm enjoying the show. Maybe one day you'll realize how percentages work. You showed me a month congrats. Where's the relevance? You're just picking an arbitrary length of time. I'll show you something staggering.

http://chart.finance.yahoo.com/c/5y/x/xjt

This is nothing against the pilots that work there as just about all that I've come across are very level headed. Seems like a few of you here, though, can drink kool-aid like no other. I don't think anyone's said the place isn't a great place to work and the management and people there aren't top notch. But it's as if you are trying to take us for fools when you try and sell us on the idea that things are going well. You can make any argument you want but it's just some offended grasp for some reason I can't tell. It's no secret I work at RAH and we're getting our flying cut just like everyone else. With the mergers going down I could be stuck as an FO for a nice long time. Our financial stability in the market could easily tumble if UAL and CAL merge since we fly the 170s for UAL but CAL scope prevents it. That means when contracts are up there could be no more 170s for UAL who's a major client.

Our hiring and training has slowed at a very alarming rate. No telling what the future holds. The difference between some of you guys and the rest of us is that we aren't in denial about what's going on. It's sad to watch really.

I find it humorous how these Express Jetters will stand up and defend their company and how great it is despite the fact it is crumbling beneath their feet.

...says the guy who was so out of touch that he just now posted about the COLAs. I find that most humorous.

I'm glad you just showed the true meaning behind you making this thread.

Let me bring everyone back to what you said initially...

Now it is obvious you just posted that to make it seem like XJT is in trouble. I present you guys with facts and you still have none, but to say "my friend told me of our former grads at XJT"...

After all that has happened in this industry over the past month and XJT stock has risen 44%, and you say "despite the fact it is crumbling beneath their feet." Wow!

Wow, this coming from one of the biggest kool-aid drinking guys on here. I don't care if XJT isn't hiring. Last I checked you were pushing quick upgrades and plenty of hiring for the year. Let me welcome, you, to reality.

I believe the voluntary furloughs and toiletduck's data support my conclusions.

WOW!!!

Again we did not have any furloughs!!
we offered COLA's which the employee retains seniority and longevity. The employee keeps medical and travel benefits.

Why are you out to make XJT look bad?

Do you think my buddy at Mesaba that took COLA this month is furloughed?

Do you think the guys at Horizon that took low hour monthly schedules are furloughed?

Who do you work for?

I don't have anything against XJT. I am just curious whats going on. Some former college classmates of mine that work there seem to be very concerned about their future there.

The difference between that and a furlough is?

Then why do you get on here and say crap like this...?


Just because you work at XJT, means you really know whats going on. I have to explain our company's shape to CA's and fellow FO's every day. A lot of these guys don't listen to conference calls or follow the company that much and just go off hearsay. I just spoke to my buddy the other day and he had no idea about Mesa possibly going under any day now. He thought we would be the next to go. Most pilots don't read the SEC filings

You forgot the word don't. I'll second that.

ARGHH!!!!

Are you trying to insult us?

I've decided you just say stuff like that to get a rise out of people.

I love how you insult all those pilots out there that actually had to go through a real furlough.

So you think it is really bad for a 1st year FO to take a COLA, retain his seniority and longevity, keep medical benefits and travel benefits and go make MORE MONEY! My buddy is teaching a guy for 1 week instructing and is getting the same amount if he would've worked 1 month at XJT. He still has medical and travel and will come back on year to pay.

No, toilet, I was referring to guys at XJT that don't know what is going on.

Are you saying that the branded operation broke even for March? If so, I'm curious as to how you determined this. The March traffic release does not include yield information, making it impossible to determine the financial performance of the branded operation.

I have friends at ExpressJet and sincerely hope for the best for them, but I have difficulty sharing your optimism about XEs future. It's impossible to put great significance on the latest load factors without knowing if yields improved or not, and I'm very concerned about what will happen should a significant amount of convertible note holders decide to cash out this August.