Wall Street says we don’t make any money at it.
It accounts for only 10% of our revenue yet consumes, perhaps 40% of our pilot resources?
40% might be high but my Amazon trips are typ. one and sometimes two legs per day.
PAX revenue is way up.
JB says the ticket increases are successful and here to stay.
Pilot recruitment is down.
Attrition is bound to go up with the new pay rates elsewhere.
Contracts are made to be broken. Ask Silver.

Will there be a divorce? If so, when.
Much to the chagrin of senior captains who relocated to LAL, I see it sooner then later.
Perhaps I’m the first to say- good riddance.

Am I wrong?

 

this company is a complete disaster. I don’t know any individual, who is successful that pays their bills out of their savings account. This company is content at running at its thinnest margins and that’s exactly what they at the expense of quality of life. No wonder everybody’s calling out to take back their own schedules and lives. Its foundation is based on being disingenuous. They lie, cheat and steal. If I wasn’t a slave, to society and my monetary items for the next 19 years, I would say good riddance as well

 

I’m not sure I’d go THAT far.

I think many of us have sensed the winds blowing from a different direction in 2023 vs ‘22. The MEC is spot on there.

I hope we grow up and drop Amazon. We can do better. We deserve better. Like airplanes with, you know, functional packs.

That I sweat my a** off (half the month) in a plane that doesn’t make money and only accounts for 10% of revenue. Well, that just sucks. See ya Bezos.

 

I think you guys are a bit shortsighted. Amazon is one of the reasons this company is still around. Not that we owe them anything, but something to keep in mind.

Other than that, looking at the last 3 years, with demand as high as it is, not having Amazon around would have been more profitable. But this environment will not last forever. A time is coming when demand will be low, and cargo flying will be a stable revenue coming in that they can plan around.

Maybe I give them too much credit, but the C suite sees a place for Amazon. The problem is our airline is not the right size right now. With scale, amazon will have its place. More pilots, more airplanes, grow sched service, grow ad how charter, and then finally if there are still extra resources, allocate some growth on the Amazon side. Each year the Amazon contract has escalators in place that increase the revenue. In the long term, it will be profitable for them. And even if it doesn’t, the only risk is the opportunity cost.

 

All that for just 10% of revenue thou?
C suite passed on the Atlas birds. Why?

 

I don't like to be negative for the sake of being negative. Having said that, pairings this summer are the worst I've seen. Amazon and short staffing contribute, but some of it is completely self inflicted. I can look at a lot of July pairings and say, "if I were trying to build a fatiguing pairing, this is exactly what I would do." There is no excuse for that. That kind of behavior is self-destructive, and it must stop if there is to be hope of this company being successful. Secondly, we might be short-staffed forever (i.e. until we inevitable shrink in furlow in the next deep recession). The company doesn't seem to have any desire to implement measures to get us to a good staffing level. This is also an area where the company is to blame. You can't attrit so many F.O.'s and then cry about being short on upgrades. It makes you look like an idiot. Sorry, boss-man, not even trying to be negative, but some things you have to say how it is. There is a paragraph on the earnings call where this question was brought up, and the answer is every bit as disappointing as one might expect. Upgrades is an industry-wide problem? Yeah, right. I give management credit for doing a lot of things right, but this kind of thing is inexcusable. So in the end, yes, I think Amazon is a factor that helped us initially and is something of a drag on us lately, especially in busy times like this summer, but I think other management decisions, namely the two I described, are bigger factors than whether we have Amazon flying in our pairings. Personally, I would like to see amazon stay, because where I am in seniority, the trips (when not fatiguing) can offer better QOL than what I might otherwise be bidding. Depending on seniority and QOL goals, I can see where others would adamantly want it to go.

Not overly pleased with the MEC at this moment, either. I would be willing to bet that if you asked the pilot group about the long trips they would have overwhelmingly agreed to keep them for now and negotiate the problems (vacation conflicts, 1/2 more days of work for other pilots, etc.) at a later date. Not renewing an LOA like that looks amateurish to me.

I would love for others to weigh in on the upgrade situation, industry-wide. I'm pretty sure places like Alaska and Southwest don't have upgrade problems. United does, but that has something to do with the fact that all of the former SY F.O.s over there need to become eligible. I'm confident that the new contract will alleviate their upgrade problems. I'm not at all confident that we are doing anything to help with ours.

Hawaiian, JB, American? idk, don't have a pulse on the upgrade situation at all those places. I bet if you picked places with crappy management and poor contracts, they all have upgrade problems! So where does that put us?

 

NIbake I feel everything you’re saying. I don’t want to heap on either. I think this is a good discussion- without names.

Upgrades are indeed an industry-wide problem. But last I heard, we currently have zero bidding upgrade. We might be alone there.

 

Isn't all the Crime Air operators suffering?
Amazon Crime.

 

A lot of people prefer QOL and having a decent schedule versus being the plug as a CA reserve. Can’t blame them - much easier to enjoy your Miata and spend time with your second family when you’re not constantly getting hosed as a reserve. As for Amazon - I hope we keep it. I’d much rather sit on the ramp in LAL for hours while the meter is running during a thunderstorm than fly 5 legs on a casino line. If I wanted to fly regional type routes I would have stayed at the regional flying the -9

 

or you sit on the ramp in that dump they call LAL for hours, not getting paid because they scattered like roaches at the sign of an electrical storm and abandoned the loading… everybody else made it through Covid without Amazon. Don’t see why we need them especially, without the long trips.