“…buying those planes with cash!”

Is this from hiring more pilots than are retiring, or from the pilot labor rates? Seems like United isn’t growing available seat miles as fast as it is adding pilots to the payroll, and then blaming a CBA.

Their exact motivations/reasons are open to interpretation by APC experts, but the exact verbiage in the 8K says:

The Company has determined that it is appropriate to accrue expense in the first quarter 2023 related to a potential new collective bargaining agreement with employees represented by the Air Line Pilots Association. This accrual represents a shift in the timing of the associated expense from the second quarter 2023 into the first quarter 2023.

https://ir.united.com/node/30341/html

Media speculation: negotiating tactic.


https://liveandletsfly.com/united-ai...lots-contract/

I have decided that liveandletsfly is an APC troll that started a aviation 'news' website. That website consistently has some of the worst takes I read, including here or anywhere else around the internet.

I highly doubt in this negotiating environment C-suite management is sitting around trying to figure out how to, "scare" the pilots. It is clearly a financial excuse to hide softer than planned demand through Jan-Feb with the higher fuel costs hidden in the obscurity of the pilot contract.

This entire 8k filing is bogus news.

So now that Kirby has openly suggested that mediation may to be the path forward, will UAL be revising their guidance for Q1 to show a profit? I’m guessing nope. Weird huh?

It's another empty threat. I don't think the company can afford to go to mediation.. that would mean hundreds more unfilled CA vacancies. There's no way they could absorb that.

Where was this said?

I don’t think management is really worried about this. United is hiring thousands and every month there are more people eligible to bid captain.

Whenever there is a new contract (I predict 2024), the seniority required to hold captain will increase. Therefore I predict some junior th pilots taking the plunge over the next few months in order to lock in their spot that they won’t be able to hold after the new contract.

At TK town hall yesterday.