Planes out of service in the system

[1AA]

<_< -------- Bottom line here guys, is that an Airplane ain't going to fly if there's no signature on the "Airworthiness Release" in the log book by a licensed AMT!-------- Yes, that includes spare aircraft! -------- And yes, a Supervisor can do it, if he's licensed, and has the big ones to sign for work he's not done!!!

Supervisors were told not to sign logbooks anymore. The FAA explained to a bunch of us one day that management is not directly involved in the maintenance end of the operation (hands on). They manage and supervise the operation not turn the wrench. Hopefully the FAA will hold AA accountable to this policy.

 

[Veritas]

Dunno, guys, looking at Flightstats.com AA managed to hold to a 75% A-14 yesterday.

Jetwire reports 72.4% for Wednesday and 75.1% month to date A+14 and 82.6% for Wednesday and 81.2% month to date Direct D-0 .

 

[MCI transplant]

Supervisors were told not to sign logbooks anymore. The FAA explained to a bunch of us one day that management is not directly involved in the maintenance end of the operation (hands on). They manage and supervise the operation not turn the wrench. Hopefully the FAA will hold AA accountable to this policy.

<_< ------- It's about time! But I wouldn't count on FAA. Remember they are the ones that are "supposed to" regulate those same foreign sweat shops!!! And once push comes to shove, they will be pressured to get those Aircraft to the gate "on time" or else!!!

 

[tech2101]

I have heard that there is a larger than usual number of planes going out of service at stations like ORD,JFK and DFW. The funny thing is that they are not showing up on Vianet as usual. At JFK they had 13 out of service on Sat and the only way you knew that they were out of service was if you took the plane out of service yourself or new the person that did. They have also been white slipping people and locking up break rooms in order to corral the mechanics so that they can keep a better eye on them at JFK. In ORD they just upped the managers head count from 2 to 4. They are standing over them,watching them do there jobs and questioning them when they write somthing up. Seems there was an etops A/C taken out of service and never made vianet.

The exact same thing happened at NWA during our contensious time in the mid '90's. Same playbook, different players. Stop posting here!

 

[chris perry]

The exact same thing happened at NWA during our contensious time in the mid '90's. Same playbook, different players. Stop posting here!

SPEAKING OF PUSHING AIRCRAFT.REMEMBER THE JIFFY POP 757 WITH EXECS ABOARD THAT WAS CLASSIC GETTER DONE.
EVERYTIME I SEE SPEED TAPE I LAUGH......

 

[chris perry]

Dunno, guys, looking at Flightstats.com AA managed to hold to a 75% A-14 yesterday.

By comparison, union brothers United were at 66% and Southwest at 60% for yesterday. Nonunion DL were at 83% and Jetblue at 57%.

If being better than Jetblue and Southwest is what you guys call a slowdown or a lot of aircraft suddenly OTS for unrelated reasons, then either you really suck at working to rule, or your rules simply don't impact departure dependability nearly as much as you think they do....

I have a question E how is the departure time counted? We regularly see the clock restarted during a delay three and four times.
Is there a window of departure to be considered on time ?

 

[MCI transplant]

I have a question E how is the departure time counted? We regularly see the clock restarted during a delay three and four times.
Is there a window of departure to be considered on time ?

:huh: ------- You're not saying they may be "fudging" a little, are you? ------ "Regularly" you say?--- Humm? So much for your on time numbers Mr. E !!!!

 

[WorldTraveler]

OT is measured against published scheduled times... doesn't matter what AA does internally in terms of resetting the departure time -the one that really counts is the scheduled time and it is based on those that stats are reported to the DOT - and which are the basis (on an unaudited basis) for sites such as flightstats.
DOT standard OT is measured by within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival and only applies to domestic flights. The DOT doesn't really care what time the flight leaves but when it arrives.

 

[MCI transplant]

<_< -------So how do they count it when they leave 15 minutes early, leaving paying passengers, and one non-rev., standing at the gate, like Eagle did down in SJU? :huh:

 

[WorldTraveler]

probably OTif it arrived at destination on skd but having lost money, if the DOT cares about the 2nd part.

 

[eolesen]

Flightstats and other websites get a feed from the FAA. They're not getting data direct from the airline as far as I can tell.

Leaving 15 minutes early sounds like an anomoly more than practice, but the rule used to be if you weren't checked in 30 minutes to departure, your booking didn't have to be honored. AA's written procedure used to be leaving early was only allowed if all checked-in passengers were all accounted for. I authored the manual revisions for that section... Eagle doesn't have to follow AA's operating procedures, but they usually do.

Back to the original comment and observation.... Third party dependability numbers make it look like there's no serious effort to slow things down.

 

[WorldTraveler]

flight stats might rely on FAA data to calculate OT for day to day operations but the airlines do in fact provide the official on-time information that the DOT uses to calculate OT... including the reasons for delays, which only airlines can provide.
http://airconsumer.dot.gov/reports/atcr11.htm
.
AA's policy including that of its regional partners is that check-in must be completed at least 30 minutes prior to departure and that a passenger must be present at the gate at least 15 minutes before departure in order to ensure your reservation and those guidelines are the same for American, American Eagle, and American Connection.
http://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInformation/checkingIn/arrivalTimes.jsp?anchorEvent=false&from=Nav
.
In the most recent DOT on-time report, AA and AE were both slightly above industry average for OT at 7th and 9th places, respectively. Most of the industry was clustered within a point of the average with UA and US bot 3-5 points above the industry average.
For the 1st quarter of 2011, AA was slightly above industry average and AE was slightly below but low enough to get a 15th place ranking.
.
It is accurate to say that published, audited OT does not inidicate that AA iis suffering any systemic OT problems. The only carrier that is consistenly well below average on OT numbers is B6 who surprisingly manages to get planes into JFK close to on-time but not in other stations.

 

[MCI transplant]

Flightstats and other websites get a feed from the FAA. They're not getting data direct from the airline as far as I can tell.

Leaving 15 minutes early sounds like an anomoly more than practice, but the rule used to be if you weren't checked in 30 minutes to departure, your booking didn't have to be honored. AA's written procedure used to be leaving early was only allowed if all checked-in passengers were all accounted for. I authored the manual revisions for that section... Eagle doesn't have to follow AA's operating procedures, but they usually do.

Back to the original comment and observation.... Third party dependability numbers make it look like there's no serious effort to slow things down.

<_< ------- Mr.E, What I was refuring to was a connecting flight from AA out of DFW, into the Virgin Islands, last flight of the night! "anomoly"? Normally that might be, but my Son flew the same flights exactly a week earlier, and the same thing happened to him! Not only did they leave paying passengers at the gate, both times, but they had to pay for Hotel rooms, and food, for them! Us non-revs, were just S.O.L.!!!-------- And SJU is "not" nonrev friendly for overnights!!!

 

[PhatSappy]

I have heard that there is a larger than usual number of planes going out of service at stations like ORD,JFK and DFW. The funny thing is that they are not showing up on Vianet as usual. At JFK they had 13 out of service on Sat and the only way you knew that they were out of service was if you took the plane out of service yourself or new the person that did. They have also been white slipping people and locking up break rooms in order to corral the mechanics so that they can keep a better eye on them at JFK. In ORD they just upped the managers head count from 2 to 4. They are standing over them,watching them do there jobs and questioning them when they write somthing up. Seems there was an etops A/C taken out of service and never made vianet. In ORD there were a couple of passengers walking around the terminal with signs that stated FLY AA YOUR VACATION WILL NEVER END & YOU WILL NEVER GET HOME. I have also been told that there are higher than normal numbers of a/c out of service at DFW and that there are a growing number of docks in Tulsa that are working by the book. The number of people taking field trips out of Tulsa are dwindling also due to changing work rules. They require you to take a minimum of 8hrs off after working 12 hrs unless you have prior approval. I thought that the reason for having the field trips is to get the plane back into revenue service. With the contract neg going the way that they are,can you expect anythingelse. They have intentionaly delayed neg. They promised SHARED SACRIFICE with no intention of ever delivering on that promise. I'm sure the company suckups are going to come on here and say that we are hurting the passengers. Well that maybe true,but what about our families pain. The fact of the matter is that it is the company that is hurting the passengers due to their actions at the neg table. They promised and didn't deliver. They always have one of there company mouth pieces in papers telling half truths to the public and complete lies about pensions,labor costs and costs per available seat mile,but they never seem to tell people that the majority of these problems they created. I always like to read how they state that AA offered X number of holidays or vacation days to us to sweeten the offer,but they don't tell the public that they were taking away 10 times what they were offering and that the total value of the offer was half of what the previous offer was. On a different note. I was told that UPS started sending out there retro checks and one mechanic recieved $41,000 and AA is balking about less than a 1/4 of that after they have been saving that for 3 plus years. If they didn't save the money that they haven't paid us over the years,they should be fired for mismanagement.

An AMT day celebration? "Happy AMT dAAy"!

 

[787nightmare]

"I was told that UPS started sending out there retro checks and one mechanic recieved $41,000 and..."

That's because UPS makes more net profit in 1 month than AA does in a year. Easily.
Don't get me wrong now...I know UPS mechs secured a great top out rate(can imagine IBT "language/scope"), but the legacy carriers' mechs will probablynever see that kind of money! Especially in OH. No bone to pick, but just the sad reality IMO. It's burns there asses right up to have to pay us knuckle draggin mechanics the kind of money they're paying us now. After all, we don't have a bachelors!!