I'll put it simply for you. If the company is telling us the truth that we will lose $35 million and they will go Bankrupt. Going bankrupt would more than likely lead to another regional replacing our flying. So I hope you can understand most of us at ExpressJet DO NOT want to have pilots from those regionals telling us to VOTE NO or not. Leave the decision up to us.

Now if we take these cuts and our profit sharing goes up drastically, any profit over $30 million results in 50% give back to the employees and anything over $90 million results in a complete snapback. Plus our management have already taken a 10% paycut and they can not give themselves ANY RAISES until we get our pay back. If they give themselves a raise, we get FULL SNAPBACK

 

Look at the balance sheet... ExpressJet is in REALY bad financial shape.

As of the last 10-Q we were only generating 64% of the revenue we need to break even. We just did a reverse 10:1 stock split, cash revenues are only 5%, there is $120M less cash on hand now than there was a year ago, our debt coverage is too low, we are leveraged 18:1, we have very little liquidity.

Through operational changes and cost savings we need to find that missing 36%, that translates into roughly $120M that we couldn't find in the last 12 months. Ditching the Branded and the Delta will help out a little bit, as will the pay cuts labor groups have taken, but we also have to realize that even though we aren't paying for Branded and Delta we are losing all the income that those operations gave us, CAL is also paying less now per airplane than they were last year... The point is it isn't going to be easy.

I could go on and on but the point is it's pretty bad, they need the savings.

Those are just the facts. My thoughts are they are going to get it weather we give it to them or not.

 

Not trying to tell you how to vote, but we at Comair have been tricked many times. Every time they have told us, if you take this pay cut then we will be more competitive and get more flying, every time we took the cut we lost flying. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Maybe your management isn't so dishonest or manipulative but we are just trying to inform you of what history has taught us.

 

I always love how people are frivolous when it comes to other people’s jobs. “Full pay to the last day, unless it’s my last day.”

Do what you think you need to do as a pilot group. If the profit sharing will make up for the pay cut, cool. If you guys can get the snapback provisions in writing, even better.

I think all of us other regional wage slaves will be watching this closely to see how you guys play it.

Good luck.

 

The where they have trip/duty rigs along with the option to put 15% of their check away to purchase stock at a 15% discount below it's lowest price over the 6month period. That stock option is a gold mine, especially now. It's more than just numbers.

 

I'm not saying that it's a good thing that we will have to take the cut, but take a step back and look at the actual cut itself. It doesn't even come close to bringing us to the levels of others. A 3rd year FO will still make $36/hr next year to fly a 50-seater. It's still low, but I think we should be more worried about those that are flying 50-seaters around for under $30/hr, because they are still out there. Let's help them fight for better pay first before people get on the ExpressJet pilots here for lowering our pay to a level that is still above most at our level. We can't get raises until others do.

 

ExpressJet has duty rig as well, it's called a 3.75 minimum per duty period, which is scheduled at a max of 13.5 hrs. I guess our trip rig would be 15 hrs minimum for 4 days. Not that great, but they are in there. Plus, you usually see well over 4 hours a day.

Not sure how much that stock option is good now since it is near its 6 month low, but ExpressJet also allows you to purchase at a 15% off rate, even though I would advise strongly against that one. Plus, I'm pretty sure they have to hang on to the stock for a certain time frame.

The best part I like about ExpressJet, is the 100% 401K match of 4%-6% of your salary, which starts immediately. They also contribute an additional 2.5%-6% of your salary to your 401K. My first year I put in 4% of my salary and they gave me 6.5%. Thankfully, that was not touched in this salary reduction request.

 

Why is XJT in such a financial hole?

I assume their new agreement with CAL covers their operating expenses.

Is it residual from the branded venture?

 

That is where you went wrong. You assumed they signed a CPA that made them a profit! Oh wait -- we're supposed to all assume that, because that is how companies normally operate.

The CPA that XJT entered into with CAL is actually so bad for XJT that they cannot really make a profit with the current budget. Even with labor concessions the CEO has been quoted as saying, to paraphase, 'I'm not sure we have a viable business plan.'

So that is the problem.

But, they could not negotiate higher rates because RAH, SKW, PCL, Colgan, etc. are also interested in capturing new flying and so XJT basically had the option of losing flying or signing a less lucrative deal.

 

its not a contract but an agreement that can be broken. and stock repurchase plans are generally bad deals. They take the average price not the lowest for the previous quarter and give you your discount off that. XJT has stock repurchase but with only a 10% discount and we havent been able to do it for awhile because of our low price. Why would you want to 1)invest in an airline and 2)invest in your own airline? If your company goes belly up you are out of a job and out $$$ from a poor investment. It is not smart to put money where your paycheck comes from.