Originally Posted by AllisonRR

Excerpt taken from PlaneBusiness Banter by Holly Hegeman, Editor
Friday March 21, 2014, Volume 18, Issue 11

Speaking of the regional airline sector, the pilots at American Eagle continue to vote on the tentative agreement proposal the Air Line Pilots Association MEC put out for a vote. The voting period on the TA ends next week, so we will then have an answer as to whether American Airlines will be using American Eagle to fly those sixty new Embraer E-Jets, or whether the flying will be dispersed amongst the list of regionals that bid for the work. As we mentioned previously, that RFP which breaks the flying up into three sets of 20 aircraft each has already gone out for bids.

I want to take a few minutes and talk about this vote, as I think it is one of the most important union votes we've seen in the industry of late. First of all, I would like to say to the leaders of the ALPA MEC who refused to recommend to members of their union how they should vote on this agreement -- shame on you. Abstention is not an option. (Three members voted to recommend the agreement to members, while six members abstained.) The members of your union elected you to represent them. They don't have the same level of access to management discussions and negotiations that you have. They don't have access to the same information on a national ALPA scale as you have. You were elected to represent them in situations just like this.

For a member of the Eagle MEC to stand on the sidelines, pull the political card, and not provide more guidance to members on such an important vote is, well, shameful.

Hope you guys can sleep at night.

Having said that, I want to say a few things about this proposed contract because there is a lot of bad information out there concerning it. I think American Eagle pilots need to vote yes, not no.

1) The number one misperception about this agreement that I have heard over and over again is that Eagle management will come back to ALPA if the union votes down the deal because no other regional will be able to hire pilots to staf the new flying.

If you are an American Eagle pilot and this is why you are going to vote no, you are in for a rude awakening. Is not going to happen. RFPs are out. There are hungry stand-alone regional airlines out there ready to pounce.

They will find the pilots.

2) On the reverse side of the argument, another misperception is that Eagle won't be able to hire anyone. I decided to ask around and see just how the hiring pool looks at American Eagle. Since we've heard mixed messages from other regional airlines of late, (including some mild hysteria) and since it would stand to reason that a job at Eagle, with a flow-through, would be better than a job at a standalone regional, guess what we found out?

According to more than one source (and they both coincide so I am going to go with the numbers) between the time that the first agreement was reached until the time the MEC voted not to send it out, weekly pilot applications went from 8 per week to 66 per week. Applications then dropped to only about 3 or 4 per week after the MEC voted not to send the deal out. Makes sense.

What does this tell you? It tells me that American Eagle with a pilot contract is looked upon as a desirable place for pilots to work.

How are applications looking now? I was told that after the "new" TA was reached, there was yet another spike in applications. Weekly applications are now back in the 50 to 55 per week range. And I am told the overwhelming majority of those applicants are qualified to fly the airplanes that need to be flown.

3) The flow-through agreement. What is the dif erence between what is in place now and what will be in place in the future if the TA passes?

Today, Eagle provides 50% of the monthly new hire class to American. If the class is 40, Eagle supplies 20. Under the new deal, 100% of the first 30 pilots American hires in a month will come from Eagle. That is a significant improvement, especially if American is hiring smaller classes, like 20 per month. Previously, only 10 would have flowed through to American; under the terms of the new contract, it would be all 20.

So if the class is 30, it is all Eagle. If it is 40, 30 are Eagle. Granted, if the new class is 60, only 30 will be Eagle. But that would still be 50% -- the same as the current agreement.

4) As best I can tell, not one pilot takes a paycut as part of this deal.

First Officers below 8 years and Captains below 12 years will still get step increases, Captains in years 15 to 17 will keep getting annual increases, First Officers who are promoted to Captains will get huge pay increases, and Captains who flow through to American will obviously hit the jackpot.

5) This deal guarantees 170 aircraft. The contract between Delta and Endeavor only guarantees 81.

Oh, and another thing I learned this week. While Endeavor pilots do have flow-through rights -- they only have 12 a month. In addition, they have to interview at Delta. Sources tell me that less than half of them are receiving job offers. All of Eagle's flow-through pilots will get an offer because there is no interview.

So why are pilots telling me they are going to vote no? Two main reasons.

1) "The only way to attract pilots is to raise pay and benefits." (See above. Apparently American is not having trouble getting applications.) I'm sure a lot of people would like to see the entire regional/mainline system gutted and changed -- I know I would. But this contract is not going to do that. Nor will this happen if the contract is not approved. But not approving this contract could make the lives of American Eagle pilots much worse. Sorry. Wish I could say otherwise. So if you want to vote no and "stand for the cause" it's not going to end well. As I said, those RFPs are already out there.


2) "Mainline carriers are making record profits. We want more."

Unfortunately, that is not how the broken regional airline model in the U.S. works. Or doesn't work. How it works right now is this: there are regional airlines out there that will bid on these RFPs at rates lower than the costs contained in this TA. That's a fact. A sad fact. It is the model that is broken. Given the constraints of that broken model, I say a "yes" to this contract beats the alternative.

We'll all find out which way the vote goes next week.

Originally Posted by Crawl

That would fit with Pedro's "vision" and his touting that 170 would only be a MINIMUM fleet guarantee and how he wants to grow Eagle errr Envoy in the future... buuut threatening to shrink us if we vote down the TA... makes sense? Those planes gotta go somewhere... good luck Mesa!

Originally Posted by Mason32

Their idea is eventually for all AA hiring to go through envoy. If that becomes the only route to AA they will not have a shortage at all.

Originally Posted by tom11011

That might be what they publish, but the truth is it wouldn't be sustainable, they would have to hire from other regionals.

The best way for American to deal a blow to their competition is to hire the talent away from other regionals, not destroy their own regional. One could look at the flow as a management tool to control the attrition rate of departing regional pilots. One could also theorize that regionals without any flow agreement would move through the hiring system the fastest.

Originally Posted by Mason32

You're missing their intent. The front door to AA will only be through Envoy. They'll take 60 a month from Envoy to fill classes, and Envoy will hire 60 a month continuously. They will hire from other regionals, but they'll be hired at Envoy. AA HR will do all pilot selection and hiring for Envoy. You get your date of hire for AA when you start at Envoy. Their pipeline program will also be expanded.

So, you can go fly for RAH and hope to be hired someplace after a few years; or you can get hired by AA starting at Envoy with your date of hire for AA starting right then at Envoy. You can then apply anywhere just like a RAH guy, or you can just transfer in seniority order to AA.

Originally Posted by Mason32

You're missing their intent. The front door to AA will only be through Envoy. They'll take 60 a month from Envoy to fill classes, and Envoy will hire 60 a month continuously. They will hire from other regionals, but they'll be hired at Envoy. AA HR will do all pilot selection and hiring for Envoy. You get your date of hire for AA when you start at Envoy. Their pipeline program will also be expanded.

So, you can go fly for RAH and hope to be hired someplace after a few years; or you can get hired by AA starting at Envoy with your date of hire for AA starting right then at Envoy. You can then apply anywhere just like a RAH guy, or you can just transfer in seniority order to AA.

Originally Posted by tom11011

The only problem is Envoy will not be able to hire 60 per month. There are some pilots near the end of the training pipeline right now. There are other pilots who will jump ship and join. Then there will likely be 2 airline failures this year to capture pilots. --but after that, there is nothing really in the pilot pipeline. The industry is just now starting to scratch the surface of this problem. Imagine what it will look like in 6 months. The shortage doesn't even peak for another 6 years.

Originally Posted by bailee atr

Mason, I have followed your post for a while. You have contributed good factual information in the past.

Is this rumors or factual information. Does voting yes or no, on the current TA, change any of their plans to hire to AA through envoy?