Rise & Demise of Pinnacle Airlines
 

During the early 2000's Pinnacle was receiving 2-3 CRJ-200's a month and gasoline was $1.20-$1.30. Oil was 30 something a barrel. The scope had been undermined at Northwest with the use of a "closet" to make the CRJ's have only 44 seats (which later were removed and converted to 50 seats). These pilots rejected by the major airlines that stayed at Pinnacle, by default were advancing into lower management and supervisory ranks. These rejects, came up with cockamamie rules that you can only call in sick so many times per year, etc. A management style like this did not promote efficiency in the operation, it did the opposite. It infuriated pilots and all other labor groups to retaliate with an "I don't care mentality." More cockamamie rules and complete loss of professionalism from this group. It became war.

Upper management could not keep their hand out of the cookie jar as they took bigger and bigger bonuses each year. Towards the climax of their robbery, they even took 1/3 of the airlines profits in a year. Instead of the money being invested into the employees or a stronger financial operation, they blew it on lavish vacations and payouts to those who would keep them accountable enabling laziness. During this era, the laziness of upper management grew to the extent that they were so detached from the operation, they had no idea how out of control the operation had become.

Pinnacle became the only airline in the United States of America to have ground controllers ask you "are you going to be waiting on numbers?"...when you called for a pushback clearance. If you didn't have your numbers then, you had to wait at the gate while every other airline taxied to the runway and took off. At some airports, CRJ-200's clogged up the run up areas at major airports as they waited 30-40 minutes each flight for their w/b data. All because management was no where to be found when employees were trying to notify them of the operational failures. This went on for years. Pathetic.

Because the hositility towards employees had risen to new levels, retaining flight attendants was a real challenge. Pinnacle management devised a scheme to interview flight attendants in the ghetto near bus stops through a newspaper ad. You didn't even have to have the success to own a car, you could ride the bus to your interview. These ghetto flight attendants had no skills, no manners, no discipline, nothing. It was a complete opposite to the Pan Am days, and it was the front lines, the face of the airline. Thus, customer service sunk to new levels as a result.

In a mere effort to gain size to increase the managements bonuses, they bought unprofitable airlines which should have gone out of business on their own. Reach towards the end of this era, despite stock prices dropping from $20 dollars a share to .50 cents, management was reaping in millions of bonuses yearly.

Then to accomodate buying airlines, a sky scraper downtown executive building was "necessary" with upper management having Mississippi River views to gaze off at (if they showed up for work).

6 years into contract negotiations had worn down the moral of the employees to unprecedented levels, pilots were writing up every single mechanical imperfection possible to make a point to management to not undermine your workforce. Management had beat down the labor forces so bad, it was a slowdown without a great effort. Pilots simply were too fatigued with the horrible labor relations to work hard.

The CEO became even more detached that he would only show up twice a year at the airport, that was to load bags on the ramp (long enough to get his picture taken and that's it). No more pilot meetings, nothing. Total detachment.

As the mergers got completely out of control, pilots were waiting 3-6 months in order to get through a training event for their newly assigned aircraft per the new seniority list. Meanwhile, pilots who were trained were get TWICE their hourly wage to keep the operation running. This spiraled out of control and brought the airline to its knees.


I write this to anyone who might think for a nano second that it's a group failure. It is 100% a management failure. They are incompetent jerks who waste money, with no regard to the financial well being of their employees. They are drunk off their lavish lifestyles provided by a board of directors that also enjoyed the wild ride amidst a looming financial ruin. This is "corporate raiding" at it's finest. Frank Lorenzo would be proud.

Out of 2,300 pilots, 405 of them will remain captains, another 405 will be downgraded to first officer, and 1,500 pilots will become unemployed.

The bankruptcy's, car repossesions, and personal financial ruin will be caused by a detached management group that became lazy and held un-accountable to protect what thousands have worked so hard to build.

ShyGuy will soon chime in and explain how he saw it coming and to let you know that you should have gotten out a long time ago.

All the best to the XJ/9E/9L clan. Sad times indeed with what has become of a couple great airlines.

You're too nice.

I would try to put how I feel into words but everything starts with "F".
This place is a perfect example of how not to run an airline.

How do they expect this to pass when more than half will be UNEMPLOYED?!

:confused:

"Pass this TA and maybe we'll let you smell a real Delta pilot's used under shirt."

Maybe they don't expect or want it to pass. I'm sure that it could easily be spun to make it look like the airline was single handedly taken down by the "greedy" pilots.

Ding ding ding... This is management playbook 101. If you vote yes, they get bonuses. If you vote no, the airline gets shut down and they get...bonuses. And the beat goes on...

and they probably get those bonuses quicker if the airline shuts down.

Or you slow the airline down to a screeching halt, and the shareholders put enough pressure on the board of directors to fire upper management.

i sure as hell wouldn't go out without a fight. they act as if this airline's hardship is a force of nature and it just happend to land on Pinnacle. it wouldn't surprise me to see pilots and mechanics reminding the management team who really makes the airline run.

As much as everyone rags on ShyGuy, I will say that I have been reading his posts for a while and caught on to his observations from a year ago. As a relatively junior FO at 9E, I took those warnings seriously and am thankful I did. Although not quite "out of the woods yet", I know that I am extremely fortunate to be in a pool waiting to leave for much greener pastures.


Was it entirely ShyGuy's views that had me "see the light"? Not exactly. There were other people close to me that were highly influential in my decision to start preparing; but my point is that he has been right on many things and for most, that's tough to admit. So for this, I say: thank you ShyGuy.

At Pinnacle! Ha ha you watch we'll have the best ontime and completion factor in the country over the next year.
That was funny though.

I think this is absolutely right.

If we vote no, Air Wisconsin is the RFP winner for the 40 CRJ 900's.

I hope we do have the best on time performance over the next year. Because we have a responsibility to the PAX. I really do not care what management thinks about the pilots or our on time performance. We are still professionals and are paid(no matter how short or small that check is) to do our job. I will not go out of my way for the company or do any favors for the company but I will not take it our on our Passengers.

Exactly, the passengers are innocent in this whole mess, we have a responsibility to them no matter how bad it gets here.

So if the 1,500 pilots that are getting furloughed vote NO, they still lose their jobs, but it results in Air Wisconsin will be hiring 800 some pilots off the street?

And if they vote YES, they still lose their job and no jobs are available on the market.


Hmmmm......


Yea, this thing ain't passing no matter what!!!


It was fun boys!

Every airline is getting rid of its 200's, there will be massive losses everywhere.

Perfect timing, 9E voting should conclude on Jan 15th, Vegas job fair that Air Wisconsin is attending is on the 19th.

Air Wisconsin winning a RFP for 40 CRJ900s has about the same odds as Carrie Underwood leaving her husband and showing up under my Christmas tree next week.

Ain't gonna happen. Where do you even come up with this stuff??

This is what our management is saying, it could be a lie, I don't really know.

By not going out of your way or doing favors you are taking it out on the PAX. No one is saying do anything deliberate, they are saying exactly what you just said. No favors or pushing yourself above and beyond.

It's true, Delta has contingency plans in place and Delta told our mngmnt that Air Wis would be one of the winners if we vote the TA down.
Question is how many will vote no and jump to AW? It's a gamble but 60% really have nothing to lose.

Vote it down, sink the ship, then go to where the airplanes went. They will be hiring like crazy. DAL will never flow you into their list. At best you will get pref interview. Which they will laugh at you for voting yes and swiftly kick you out the door.

Skywest and ASA/XJT are not getting any of our planes according to management.

Doesn't that automatically mean that is certainly where they are going? :cool:

Never believe anything until it is officially denied.

Love it.................................filler

Very sorry to all the great XJ/9E/9L guys and gals, I hate to see that happen to you. It looks to me like another Comair. No matter what you do, Delta already decided what's going to happen to Pinnacle. Best of luck.

No, have some class. Lots of pilots stand to lose their jobs en masse, and no one deserves that. Best of luck to all involved, and hopefully this Age 65 thing kicking in can change things around.

So, 81 900s going to Air Whiskey or maybe GoJet, 2 very small companies with no 900 program?

I find it highly unlikely zero planes will go to Skywest Inc in the event of a PNCL liquidation

Did they say this in a memo or is this word of mouth?

Getting a -900 program up when you already have a CRJ program isn't that difficult. I know Air Wisconsin already has part of the plan in place. Sim is just -200, but training dept has a -700/-900 syllabus and sections of the FOM blocked off for -700/-900.

Gojet.... Who knows?? They can barely staff what they have. So I can't see them getting another 30-40 planes and being able to have any sort of completion factor.

SKYW..... Respectable company, and already in bed with Delta. If Skywest Inc has the cash and the staffing to get it done, and delta wants to make them their mega regional (something they vowed not to do post-Comair strike), then I could see SKYW getting it.

Realistically PNCL will probably vote their TA in, get the airplanes, and get the options. Mid-Jan we will all know either way.

Agreed. We'll see

Maybe I'm missing something here, but what kind of glistening carrot in the TA could *possibly* make up for the fact that there will be over a thousand Pinnacle pilots furloughed within a couple of years? Delta "flow" won't be worth crap, so it can't be that. I just don't see the 9E guys rewarding management by voting yes on a TA and sealing their airline's fate as the next Comair.

Official, our union must know who is getting the planes so they can possibly help out our pilot group for future positions if we liquidate. You are getting the 16 and that's it, other carriers have been selected for the 81 if we liquidate. You guys would own well over 50% or DCI flying if you got our planes, Delta would never allow that much.