I have multiple concerns about the Amazon flying.
When thinking about the Amazon flying, first and foremost, consider the balance of power between the three entities: Amazon, Hawaiian/Alaska, and the pilot group. Amazon holds all the power. Unlike a traditional airline or cargo operation, where the air carrier has a base of thousands or even millions of customers, Amazon is the sole customer. Not only are they the sole customer, they also own all of the infrastructure. Even if the aircraft belonged to us, which they don't, Amazon owns the sort facilities and the fleet of trucks, and the link to the customers. In addition, Amazon has relationships with multiple unsavory on demand cargo operators. They can move the flying wherever they please. The only protection is the current pilot shortage.
We'll never own the airplanes. Owning a large fleet of 330s used strictly for Amazon flying would give Amazon an extinction level hammer in which to beat us in negotiations. Nobody knows how to suddenly fill thirty 330s with cargo without a network of trucks, warehouses, and a customer base. The leases on those idle wide-bodies would send us into bankruptcy overnight. Management won't run that risk. For that reason, we'll never own those planes, and the Amazon flying will always be frought with uncertainty.
Because we won't own the planes, Hawaiian/Alaska management will not have skin in the game. There's limited risk for management but a huge risk for the pilot's seniority list. Imagine an Amazon operation with several hundred or even one thousand pilots. What happens when Amazon excercises their whipsaw machine and they ask for concessions? Could we tell them to F-off with a forlough and the mother of all displacement bids hanging over our heads? In that scenario, all the managers keep their jobs, only the pilots risk unemployment.
We all talk about career expectations. None of us went to work at Alaska or Hawaiian because we hoped management would rent us out to Amazon in a scheme that offers zero protection against pilot furloughs. I didn't survive the lost decade and nine years of the regional airline whipsaw just to voluntarily dangle my balls in Jeff Bezo's vice. We have the opportunity during our upcoming contract talks to express our concerns. In unity we must show our resolve and fight for the protections we deserve in our JCBA.