AMR Corporation Reports 2007 Net Profit of $504 Million

[FWAAA]

What I did find interesting in the articles is the report that AA has already started cancelling several of it's 777 flights beginning in February? They report they are doing so based on expected pilot retirements. Are there no pilots who can move up to keep these flights on the schedule?

Moving up requires training and scheduling that training requires time. It's not a one day process. They've to to fit in the training while keeping the other flights in the air. Usually, a very well coordinated ballet, but things fall apart if more retire than anticipated. That's the major inefficiency of having multiple fleet types that airlines like WN avoid.

The larger than expected pilot retirements may be related to the recent boom in the Dow, as AA pilots, IIRC, have a several month look-back period in determining the lump-sum value they can withdraw at their retirement. Same thing happened in 2000, when late that year more pilots retired than anticipated because their lump-sum distribution was calculated on the early 2000 stock market peak instead of the much reduced value later in the year. Same thing also happened at Delta that year.

Another factor might be a "four in ten" kind of rule (if that applies to the pilots), by which their pension is calculated based on the best several years out of the past 10 years of earnings.

 

[AC AA LA FA]

I took my $441.00 check from my Flight Service Managers hand,
thanked her,
and told her I would be opening my "Strike Fund" CD with it...

 

[AMFAMAN]

Now this just in from the fighting twu 565.

http://www.twu565.org/documents/AAsnoncont...version_001.pdf

Do not think of it as an insult, it is in and of itself is an
acknowledgement of a debt owed. It is our strong position that it is only a down payment of that debt.

A "down payment of that debt." I guess they consider less than 1% as a good down payment on debt owed, I personally prefer 15-20% down. Unless of course it is 20% down payment of what they expect to bring back. :down: :down:

 

[FWAAA]

Now this just in from the fighting twu 565.

http://www.twu565.org/documents/AAsnoncont...version_001.pdf

A "down payment of that debt." I guess they consider less than 1% as a good down payment on debt owed, I personally prefer 15-20% down. Unless of course it is 20% down payment of what they expect to bring back. :down: :down:

What I find funniest about the impotent union leader's rant in the linked letter is the whininess about CO's superior profit sharing plan. This union hack admits that the unrepresented ramp workers at CO (which his worthless union unsuccessfully tried to organize recently) have better profit sharing than his impotent union was able to negotiate on behalf of the AA TWU members. And then he blames AA for that. Too funny!

What's sad is how much of your reduced income you pay for such worthless representation. CO's rampers agreed to 10% concessions and have better profit sharing than AA's TWU members. And somehow that's management's fault? No wonder so few private industry employees are willing to put up with such nonsense.

 

[Flyboy4u]

I took my $441.00 check from my Flight Service Managers hand,
thanked her,
and told her I would be opening my "Strike Fund" CD with it...

LMAO. Great post...I think I will do the same with my $476.00.

What Unity?

 

[TWU-GOTTA-GO]

CO's rampers agreed to 10% concessions and have better profit sharing than AA's TWU members. And somehow that's management's fault?

Well, for the mechanics at least, management was the one who spearheaded the effort to stop a representational election, so I do place blame on management for not doing the right thing for those that they denied the opportunity to vote the union of their choice, not managements choice. Now the twu blaming management is a complete joke, if it wasn't for management they wouldn't be representing us anymore, so I'm not sure what their beef is.

But you got to love the nearly zero percent down payment, wouldn't expect anything else from the twu. It's about the same amount as the extension payout was.

 

[TWU informer]

Maybe now would be a good time to request donations from all Mechanic and Related folks to cover expenses that will be required to form an independent union and make another run at ousting the TWU?

 

[1AA]

It doesnt come close to covering what they stole from us over the holiday season.

We lost the paid holiday at Thankgiving,the day after, Christmas and New Years. During just these Holidays they took $1540 away from us.

They gave us back $800.

I'll take it but it still doesnt change the fact that we have the worst profit sharing plan, the worst Holiday pay, the worst sick time policy, the worst OT rates, etc of all the majors-including those that went BK.

Don't blame AA, The TWU did us in. To them it is business as usual. Best Union a company can buy.

 

[TWU informer]

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS...

 

[Runwaysticker]

It doesnt come close to covering what they stole from us over the holiday season.

We lost the paid holiday at Thankgiving,the day after, Christmas and New Years. During just these Holidays they took $1540 away from us.

They gave us back $800.

I'll take it but it still doesnt change the fact that we have the worst profit sharing plan, the worst Holiday pay, the worst sick time policy, the worst OT rates, etc of all the majors-including those that went BK.

Your not joking, hope they dont ask for more this contract, I am not giving any more back, not-a

 

[The Dissident]

Repayment of debt (principal) has nothing to do with reducing profits, regardless of whether the debt is repaid early or as scheduled.

If you're looking for evidence of how management finds it so easy to screw you at every turn, your ignorance of basic financial accounting you display in the bolded portion above is Exhibit A.

When you pre-pay debt (like pay off the car loan early), does that change your income shown on your 1040 for that year? Nope. It just removes cash from your balance sheet and reduces the liability on your balance sheet by the same amount. That's what the early debt repayment did.

Debt pre-payment does one good thing: It reduces interest payments. If you pre-pay your car 8% car loan with savings earning 3%, you're better off. That's what AA did last year. It pre-paid some principal early so it would pay less interest this year and in following years. That will make net income HIGHER in 2008 than it otherwise would have been.

Wouldn't hurt you to see if the local community college has an evening course in introductory financial accounting. Would certainly enable you to read the financial statements correctly and analyze what they show.

No question about it: Management has screwed you in the past and will probably continue to do so in the future. But pre-payment of high interest debt isn't how they do it.

Just like all those one time charges dont reduce net income either. No matter how you try and insult me I see it for what it is . An accounting gimmick designed to reduce the profit picture to avoid tax liability(if any) and screw the workers as well.So even though you attempt to insult the working men and women on this board I will at least recognize you for what you are. A self loathing company goof who is quick to spout the companys mantra and insult anyone who speaks ill of the company buy questioning their intelligence and education level.Go sit at Arpeys feet for your pat on the head for a job well done. Then again you could go to A&P school to learn whats its like to really work for your money and get your hands dirty. Maybe then you realize what it takes to fix an airplane instead of questioning someones education level. Then again I think your just jealous that a mechanic can earn more than twice your annual salary, desk jockey!!!!

 

[FWAAA]

Just like all those one time charges dont reduce net income either.

One-time charges DO reduce net income but I don't know if they count when computing AA mainline profit sharing.

No matter how you try and insult me I see it for what it is . An accounting gimmick designed to reduce the profit picture to avoid tax liability(if any) and screw the workers as well.

To paraphrase Pres. Reagan: There you go again. Pre-payment of debt isn't an "accounting gimmick."

So even though you attempt to insult the working men and women on this board I will at least recognize you for what you are. A self loathing company goof who is quick to spout the companys mantra and insult anyone who speaks ill of the company buy questioning their intelligence and education level.Go sit at Arpeys feet for your pat on the head for a job well done. Then again you could go to A&P school to learn whats its like to really work for your money and get your hands dirty.

I don't have what it takes to fix airplanes. That's why I have never attempted to do it. But I do understand elementary financial accounting, unlike you. And unlike you, I tend not to say things like "pre-payment of debt is designed to avoid profit sharing," because I understand how ludicrous that statement is. You are, of course, an expert mechanic and a good parrot - some ignorant fool you work with put a bug in your ear about how the debt was pre-paid to avoid the profit sharing and you go repeating it, looking very foolish. Stay the course if that's what floats your boat.

Maybe then you realize what it takes to fix an airplane instead of questioning someones education level. Then again I think your just jealous that a mechanic can earn more than twice your annual salary, desk jockey!!!!

As I said above, I realize what it takes to fix airplanes and I know my limitations. You persist in posting nonsense about subjects you don't understand (accounting) as well as subjects in which you are an expert (airplane maintenance).

You caught me: I'm just jealous of your massively reduced salary.

I could enroll at Westwood to learn how to be an A&P but I gots to feed my family, and ~$32/hr at AA wouldn't cut it. I honestly can't understand why more of you haven't thrown in the towel and put your skills to more rewarding use. Further, given that Bob Owens has posted repeatedly about how terrible the TWU has been for you for 25 years now, I don't understand why you didn't try to replace the TWU until 2003. Why wait 20 years? Self-loathing? Look in the mirror. Get some self-respect, would you! Work for substandard wages for a quarter century while represented by a non-democratic union? I smell a self-respect deficiency, and the management at AMR can smell it too.

 

[AMFAMAN]

I don't understand why you didn't try to replace the TWU until 2003. Why wait 20 years? Self-loathing? Look in the mirror. Get some self-respect, would you! Work for substandard wages for a quarter century while represented by a non-democratic union?

Just a little FYI...AMFA was started by AA mechanic's (Dell and Friends) back in 1962 as a result of the lack of representaion. The combination of Tulsa and the continued dilution of our craft and class is what has killed numerous drives starting in the 60's. The last effort that resulted in AA pulling out all the stops as a result of the filing, was the culmination of a drive that started in 1998. Yes, long before TWA, concessions, and the like, the organizing committee that filed the cards began in 1998. Before this committee, another effort was led in 1992/93, and a bigger effort in 1989 which was killed by terminating a Tulsa organizer. So for the record, it's been 45 years of trying to boot these b@strds, and the effort is not dead by any means, it might just require another twu special of a contract to finally finish them off. <_<

 

[FWAAA]

AMFAMAN, I stand corrected.

I knew that Delle was a former AA mechanic, went off to start his own union, and almost nobody followed him for 30+ years.

Hope you guys are successful in booting the worthless union - half a century with such crappy representation is not right.

 

[AMFAMAN]

AMFAMAN, I stand corrected.

I knew that Delle was a former AA mechanic, went off to start his own union, and almost nobody followed him for 30+ years.

Hope you guys are successful in booting the worthless union - half a century with such crappy representation is not right.

Actually they were somewhat successful until the 1980 mergers swallowed up their members. After that, it took about 10 years before they got rolling again. <_<

AMFA was created in 1962 but did not represent any carrier until 1964 at Ozark Airlines. It later represented Pacific Airlines, Airlift International, Hughes Airwest, and Southern Airways.

http://amfanational.org/index.php?option=c...2&Itemid=49