Jetblue Is Rooting For Us Airways

[EyeInTheSky]

Eye in the Sky,

"Bailing" is not the term I would use for the pilots that have left MAA. We have approx. 200 pilots and have lost approx. 20 in the last year. Some went to B6, some to FL, some decided thay could not survive on $38/hr., and some reached the mandatory retirement age.

The reason you see two Captains working flights is twofold. We are expanding and with expansion comes the added training of getting pilots checked out. If you come to MAA as a furloughed mainline pilot you will be qualified as an FO and Capt. All the pilots giving this training are Captains. The other reason you will see two Captains up front is because we are short FO's.

Personally I can't wait to bail out of this pig. B6 will be looking for qualified instructors on the ERJ170 sometime around the first of the year. Myself included, I only know 20 people in the world who are qualified to teach in the ERJ170 simulator and qualified to teach out on the line. Supply and demand is a beautiful thing when I have the supply and I am the man.

4lowed

[post="179482"][/post]​

You go! Good for you. Hey, people have to feed their families. MDA wages qualify for food stamps. Pathetic. I hope pilots bypass MDA and go to other carriers that will pay a living wage.

 

[nycbusdriver]

Neeleman is really a gentleman. This is obvious from the way he treats his customers and employees. But he is also a businessman.

I think Neeleman is sincere in his comments on both of those levels. He's a nice guy and does not want to see anyone hurt, plain and simple.

But on the business level, there are many reason he may want USAirways to stick around. It was widely conjectured that SWA went to PHL to beat JetBlue there to be in place for the eventual demise of USAirways. If one believes that is true, then USAirways emerging as a viable carrier would defeat SWA's plan for PHL. That would be a plus for JetBlue.

Another aspect, although maybe of a lesser degree, is the USAirways training department. USAirways has a very competent staff of instructors for the EMB170/190 and the department is up and running at full tilt. The working atmosphere at USAirways, though, is abysmal and getting worse on a daily basis. Neeleman may see cost savings when he starts deliveries of his own EMB190's by hiring all the MidAtalantic employees he can muster. If Neeleman offers reasonable salaries, there will be a mass exodus to JetBlue at a huge cost savings to Neeleman and a huge cost disadvantage to USAirways. If I were a furloughed USAirways pilot at Midatlantic making $58/hour and David Neelamn said come on over her and fly my EMB190's for even $75/hour with the opportunity to advance with our growth, I would not hesitate (even though I would have to resign my worthless USAirways seniority number to do it.) And Neeleman knows it. He is already using the USAirways training department to train his new-hire classes of 2005, but USAirways is too dumb to figure that one out.

 

[Fubijaakr]

What a perfect illustration of the non-union (scab!) mentality...

Keep talking busdriver. $75 an hour for a 100 seat jet Captain?

The best part is you really don't understand the ramifications for the rest of the industry.

Pathetic.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

What a perfect illustration of the non-union (scab!) mentality...

Keep talking busdriver. $75 an hour for a 100 seat jet Captain?

The best part is you really don't understand the ramifications for the rest of the industry.

Pathetic.

[post="179503"][/post]​

Fubijaakr, what did he say that wasn't true? Yeah, we may not like it, but this is the way it is right now. Let's hope we can change that. But, it will take time. This whole wage issue didn't spin out of control overnight, we've been seeing wages deteriorate for the past ten years. At some point it will stop; but it won't happen unless there's cooperation from employees at multiple carriers. And, no, I am not suggesting a wildcat strike.

 

[sfb]

As others have said, the reasoning behind Neeleman's comments is at least two-fold. Saying that he is rooting for his competitor shows that jetBlue isn't pushing for the demise of its opponents, so it plays well into some sense of fair play and good sportsmanship. And yet, having US around as a weak competitor is helpful for jetBlue, Southwest, and other LCC's. Because US Airways has historically been so uncompetitive cost-wise, it has often been easy for Southwest, jetBlue and others to steal market share from US by undercutting them on price. The LCC's have been in control of the pace of their encroachment on US's markets. If US Airways were to disappear, it would be open season on its former markets, and we'd likely see them divided up among several carriers.

I'm sure jetBlue would prefer to see US survive until its Embraer 190's start to arrive, since those would be perfect for serving many of US's smaller city pairs. US's Airbus fleet isn't helpful to jetBlue given the different engine choice.

 

[nycbusdriver]

What a perfect illustration of the non-union (scab!) mentality...

Keep talking busdriver. $75 an hour for a 100 seat jet Captain?

The best part is you really don't understand the ramifications for the rest of the industry.

Pathetic.

[post="179503"][/post]​

Oh, yeah. Like I was the one who came up with the $58/hour MidAtlantic captain rate.

And like I'm the one who will knock down Neeleman's door in a mad frenzy to fly those EMB190's for $75/hour.

Get clue you [deleted][deleted].

 

[Fubijaakr]

You already proved you're gleefully willing to stab Union pilots in the back. I'll LMFAO when the "Needle" puts you all on the EMB-Scale.