That's right because XJT was a highly profitable very successful operation prior to SkyWest purchasing them. Even from 06-08 prior to Continentals Count Chocula schooling both SKW and XJT, XJT was a bleeding operation. What was it, 4-5 years dating back to 06 since XJTs turned a profit? Any they still aren’t today, BTW Inc. doesn’t “bill” XJT, they own them. Blame whoever who wish but your mindset is toxic and sad. You must fully understand the other side of the operation to better your own. But you're incapable because of your negative close minded views.
I truly try to reframe from saying things like this and I apologize to all readers and lurkers (excluding this guy) but you must be a childish idiot. Anyone who truly understand Frank, Jerry and Brad can see you're a fool posting out his ass and probably doing it for shock factor. At least I hope otherwise you're worse off than I thought.

 

Texas Air didn't "bill" Eastern, they owned them.

 

This is such a stupid statement. Even at the lowest point in their moral UA,AA, etc pilots knew how important profitability was. You should really reconsider your priorities.

I have no inside information, just common sense telling me a division of any company that fails to turn a profit after X years will soon be closed.

 

Eastern was Frank’s worse example of selling off assets to himself for pennies on the dollar and then billing the airline for massive profits. But Texas Air isn't SkyWest.

SkyWest Inc. allows XJT to run as its own standalone carrier and then the profits, more like losses, go back to St. George. If you think differently then you’re a conspiracy theorist with his head up his ass. Also anyone who tries to compare the worse Airline Tycoon in history who used junk bonds to purchase and destroyed multiple carriers and welcomed strikes in order to destroy his labor groups against hands down the most successful people oriented subcontractor CEO in history is ignorant. Jerry’s not perfect but you can’t name one CEO in our industry who has his track record. Go ahead and use the typical forum board BS rhetoric about how I’m drinking Kool-Aid or must be Mgmt. but the bottom line is Jerry’s damn good at his job and loves his airline and it's people.

All posters ever do is sit on the boards and armchair quarterback Mgmt. while lumping all CEO's in the same pool. Fact is there are different tiers of CEOs. On the bottom you have the Ornstein’s, then a rung up you have Hulas and Bedford but alone at the top is Jerry. That’s a fact that most refuse to concede. They'd rather rank them all as bad because they love to hate and as was said before, haters are always going to hate and misery loves company.

 

Call me crazy, but I don't see too many CEO's hanging out in crewrooms answering questions and simply chatting with employees asking how they can improve efficiency along with making work a little more enjoyable. Jerry, Chip and gang do so on a regular basis.

Sure, they care about profitability but I also believe they genuinely care about their employees ie, snack packs for crews on tight turns, employee appreciation BBQs, admin who works with you not against you ect.... You'll never really know the culture at OO unless you work here. I'm sorry XJT'ers have this skewed view of how OO operates. Hopefully someday you too will have appreciation towards your place of employment while waiting for the majors to call...

 

So you really think that Expressjet does whatever they want and then just mails a check (or bill) to Uncle Jerry? Can Expressjet bid on their own flying without input from Utah?

 

Of course not. You took MP way out of context. Read his entire post again, and the one to which he was responding. He was responding to the assertion that Skywest engages in a Lorenzo-esque intra division billing scheme.

 

I love how people blow things out of proportion and yes XJT does bid on flying themselves but why would you not consult Jerry and use his experience and expertise to your advantage. He gives his team the resources they need to succeed and lets them run. Brad Holt's in charge at ExpressJet and Russell “Chip” Childs at SkyWest, both are handpicked by Jerry and both are currently doing a very good job. Sure there’s jockeying but in the end we always come to an agreement and Mgmt. does a great job following that agreement far better than any union shop. I have friends at almost every carrier out there, none have what we have.

Do you realize Holt stays current as a SkyWest pilot? I was contacted by my friend ML to sit right seat for Holt in ATL for this PC and afterwards he took us out to lunch. Now I’d agree with my SkyWest friends that no one drinks and pushes more Kool-Aid than ML but if you look at his 26+ year career it’s easy to understand why. SkyWest has a culture second to none in the regional industry and I truly think their location in SGU has a lot to do with that. In Utah SkyWest isn't a stepping stone, people grow up and work hard to become a part of this organization with the intent of spend their entire career moving up the ranks. SkyWest does a great job promoting from within which as anyone knows fosters employee morale, builds a sense of family and ownership.

As mentioned by Slats our Mgmt. team regularly travels the system. And whenever there's an empty jumpseat they ALWAYS sit up front. I've had Holt, Childs, Atkins, Brooks and many more in my jump seat multiple times. Can anyone say the same about their Mgmt. team? Chip and Jerry took a beating back in 09 in DEN when we had massive stagnation, were over 500 pilots overstaffed and furloughs were being floated around. Chip sensed early on during the visit that everyone was holding back so he made a statement he wanted us all to understand. He said and I'm paraphrasing, "I will never punish nor fire anyone for speaking their mind, just tell me the truth. Please speak freely so we can built a better SkyWest and get through these hard times together!" To all those bashing our Mgmt. group; does your CEO, COO, CFO, DFO or anyone else do the same? BTW, during the second worst period in our industries history, second only the Great Depression, we never furloughed. SAPA and Mgmt. worked hard together in order to solve the problems we were facing and they will do so in the future. As I said before there will be some jockeying but in the end we will come to a beneficial agreement for both sides.

I have my application in at US/AA, DL, UA and FedEx. I will leave SkyWest for whichever hires me first but much like every pilot I’ve ever talked to who has left; I will fondly look back on my time at SkyWest.

 

Ok, that's makes more sense now. Just keep in mind, management would literally pay you half of what they do now if they could. There is a balance somewhere. It's their job to tilt the scale in their direction. It's our collective job to fight and scratch to get to that balance because they are NOT going to give that to you. And frankly, in this profession, without an NMB recognized bargaining agent, you will NEVER be able to reach that balance. Don't confuse that with saying that it means you will always be able to reach that balance with it.

Personally, I'm not worried about XJT becoming profitable. It's not my job and there isn't really anything I can do about it anyway. I would rather keep the contract we have than to take another concession. If that is not getting on board like you do with your work rules and pay rates, then I would be sandbagging it when I vote no on the concessionary TA.

The thing is that you can have both! We are on the verge of a hiring spree at the majors. There will be movement, regardless. So why would you settle for less? Also, history had shown that being the lowest paid doesn't mean your airline will be successful. Another point, as for bonuses over pay rate increases, that's all fine and dandy but keep in mind that its just management shifting its risk over to its employees. To me, that is a concession in work rules and QOL. Lastly, you may say that you do hold them accountable and you call them out when they don't cross their Ts and dot their Is, but that doesn't mean anything to management. And that's how they like it.

ExpressJet was profitable up until day one of the branded operation, which was April 2, 2007. After they shut that down on September 2, 2008, they would have been profitable if it wasn't for Skywest low ball CPA offer as part of the buyout. And keep in mind that they were able to low ball it because they were planning on giving us 16% concessions in order to bring us to parity with average Skywest pilot compensation.

As for the Lorenzo reference, I can only guess that comes from inc management's propensity to whipsaw their own employees against each other, just as Lorenzo did. They are just smarter and better at doing it. It's not a comparison I would make but if you truly understood the other side if the operation, you would understand how that mentality is not unreasonable.

You are right, we don't know. And the reason why is because JA would rather hold whipsaw over our (XJT's) head rather than make us one big happy family. If they genuinely cared about ALL of their employees over profitability, this would be a merger of THREE airlines. Don't fool yourself. They care more about the shareholder than you and I. And they make their decisions accordingly. They can offer measly snack packs and cold and insufficient food every other month but we here at XJT don't always have administration which works with us so I guess will never really know the culture here at XJT. By the way, the fact that our CEO chooses only to visit one of his division's employees in order to answer questions and chatting with us to see how we can improve efficiency as well as making work more enjoyable is very telling. But you guys seem to be blinded by this kool aid to not see the truth of this corporation.

 

I follow you and we do have a very unique situation here at SkyWest. What we have works well ONLY because Mgmt. chooses to abide by our agreements. At Mesa, RAH, AE, TSA, etc. our set up would not work. There may and probably will come a time when SkyWest will need a union, but as long as Jerry's alive there will always be a balance at SkyWest. I just hope for SkyWest’s lifer’s sake the SGU / Utah / West Coast connection and promotions from within continue to foster this culture.

I agree a union's a necessary evil in 99% of the cases, but currently SkyWest is the 1%.