$30 an hour? thats all? If you divide my block hours into pay last year I made $169 an hour - of course that was at 12 year captain pay of $84 an hour. Do you really think that XJT is the only airline with work rules? Beyond your vacation/trip touching what do you have that others don't?

(Last year was a good year, 2010 worked out to an average of about $125 an hour.)

 

But it would remove their own private internal whipsaw. To their credit they haven't used it overtly and probably have no intention of doing so in the near-term but the very fact that it exists will serve to dampen each pilot group's enthusiasm for seeking unilateral improvements.

There's not going to be a merger unless the pilots merge lists first. After that happens, they might as well get rid of the duplicate overhead and merge the operations. If you're a HQ type for ASA/XJT, you should be paying careful attention to any talk of pilot list merging and maybe be keeping an eye on SGU real-estate.

 

I'm guessing your concerns are... Where can I upgrade/earn more pay faster. Which company will be the most stable in the long run. Where will I be happiest for the next 3-5 years waiting for an interview with big airline.

I don't work for Eagle but I am very familiar with AA management, and I can tell you the environment at SW is very different. not perfect, but not the predatory stance at AA.
OO has never furloughed. They've come close but thru some creative sacrifices from both sides it was avoided. I think this will continue to be true. Upgrade at SW? 2 to 10 years? Very broad range, I know. But what would you say the upgrade time is at a shrinking company?
The folks at SW are generally happy and I think most employees will say attitude is the biggest factor in the hiring process and you'll find good folks on the line.

 

I agree that SGU loves having the whipsaw ability in their back pocket and I'm positive they're using it often in contract negotiations with SureJet, I mean the "New XJT."

 

Well forgive me, im not familiar with your contract. We have the ability to edit our lines, however we chose to be almost exactly what we want each month. I like this better than PBS because i can work how much i want, when i want, not just "what my senority can hold". Also, i have the ability to bid check airmen lines, where i can get all my trips dropped, be pay protected for the whole month, then pickup an entire month. I can get paid 200 hours for working 90. If i bid a stand up line with 57 hours credit, anything i pick up goes on top of guarantee (75 hours) reguardless of the block. I can bad day worse day trade anything all month with pleanty of open time to chose from. After the 29th of the previous month, anything that is dropped or edited in my schedule for the next month is pay protected reguardless of the reason. In a vacation month, anything i pick up is added onto 75 hours of pay, even if my block is 20 hours. If you guys can do this stuff thats awesome, you truly understand how good it can be

 

Most of that we cannot do but that's also what's keeping us in the black. Last year I blocked 754 hours and had a year end credit value of 1187. Our Perf and Fin bonuses increased my pay another $2500. Not the best but by far not the worse. We are competitively paid and if we want to work we can make a crap load of money, if we don't we still get paid very well for a subcontractor. And our company's currently making money. A balance has to be maintained otherwise we will find ourselves shrinking which benefits no one. What good is all that money when you get downgraded or furloughed?

With respect XJT was losing money prior to SkyWest Inc. purchasing you and now you are still losing money. They need to figure out how to correct this before it sinks the ship.

 

Thank you for reinforcing my negative attitude towards PBS. I have 7 days vacation, which resulted in 23 days off in a row.

 

We've been working under this contract for 8 years and posted a profit for 6 of those, how do you explain that? I hate to tell you buddy but you better start getting very worried if you really believe what youre saying, because there isnt a single person here that is willing to give any of this up. We have all the votes so what ASA wants doesnt matter. We cannot be forced into arbitration without our consent (which will never be given) so we'll work under this contract forever. Your attitude towards "staying in the black "is the exact reason why this industry is in the state its in. People kept saying it and saying it and before long regionals were created and so was the crap pay that comes along with them. But hey guys, what good is all this money if we're furloughing and downgrading? Give me an Fen break man. Im not giving another cent, there are plenty of other carrers worth our respect, im not going to keep giving and giving until i work 25 days and make 20K. Some of you people on here really make me sick.

 

With respect to your lack of knowledge (I know you guys at SKYW weren't privy to the inside baseball on what happened in 2008), SKYW Inc engineered XJT's losses 3 years prior to the current merger.

During SKYW's first attempt to buy XJT in 2008, SKW negotiated an inferior CPA with Continental in advance. When the 2008 acquisition broke off, XJT was strong-armed into the contract that SKW negotiated and forced to shut down the Branded/Delta operations, not because of losses, but because CAL wanted the E145XR's back in their system flying to Mexico. 3 months after the pull-down of Branded, the oil bubble burst and the operation would have been comfortably in the green, but CAL/SKYW had already won the Mexican stand-off.

The ship is not sinking, 3rd grade math can figure that out...over half Billion cash on hand ($646.51 Million). Enough for SGU to buy contracts for SKYW with $80 Mil loans to UAL. Enough for XJT to operate for 20 years losing $8 Mil/Quarter. Not that the reported losses are even remotely accurate, given we are in contract negotiations and every losing asset is being sold off to leverage the Balance Sheet. Sometime this year the operation will actually show a Quarterly profit (JMHO) to please the shareholders.

You guys are in for a surprise when Mgmt comes to you for concessions because the XJT operation is actually cheaper.

 

At SKW, I blocked 680 in 2011 and earned $56K (2 months on a LOA) on $42/hr. I blocked 880 in 2010 and earned $54K on $39/hr.