State of the Eagle Address.

[eolesen]

Slander on the internet cannot be a civil offense, since slander is spoken. Libel, however, may be a civil offense, depending on the circumstances. Both are considered defamation.

Those of us who use our names here could file a defamation suit against other posters here under certain circumstances, and issue a demand letter to the forum owner to release the appropriate identifying information.

As an example... accusing, alleging, or insinuating in a forum that someone else committed a crime would be prime grounds for a defamation suit, especially if the intent is malicious, not based on any facts, and/or specifically targeted to cause harm to one's reputation, especially if it is aimed at a specific individual who can be easily identified, therefore suffers actual damage to their name.

Even if the thread is subsequently deleted, the action and damage still occurred, and the site owners could be directed by a court and obligated to provide the history logs of who said what, and when it was deleted.

Trying to prove that against someone who wears the cloak of anonymity? Not quite so easy.

 

[700UW]

But in this case, he is making accusations against an organization that is not posting on here.

 

[robbedagain]

josh  while you keep saying the iam this  iam that for uax   who cares now  what happened in the past happened  it wont change.   at us  piedmont (en) took over a number of cities  and they had no union until 2010 or 2011 when the cwa won the votes. 

 

[eolesen]

But in this case, he is making accusations against an organization that is not posting on here.

That's slightly different. Public figures and organization have a higher threshold for what would trigger a winnable defamation case.

You'd have to prove his comments damaged the union's reputation, and would be found to be believable by a reasonable person.

Good luck with that one.

 

[nycbusdriver]

Slander on the internet cannot be a civil offense, since slander is spoken. 

 
What about YouTube?  That's the internet, too?

 

[eolesen]

As I understand it...

1) spoken words are slanderous
2) The re-transmission of those spoken words (be it in writing, a broadcast, or a recording) become libelous

Both could be actionable under the right circumstances, but in the end, it's an irrelevant splitting of hairs, since both constitute defamation.


Maybe it's time to get back on the real topic....

 

[La Li Lu Le Lo]

RJcasualty I have linked this thread to this forum because I believe it is relevant. 
 
Thank you.
 
http://www.airlineforums.com/topic/56610-the-united-states-government-corporate-attack-on-american-labor/

 

[will fix for food]

.It would create a month or two of havoc for small communities, long enough for Mesa, Republic, and Skywest to backfill the void, and maybe a few routes in some key cities like OKC and TUL getting mainline service temporarily. Having time to wind it down in an orderly fashion like DL did with Comair? Even less disruptive.

Mesa, Republic, and Skywest don't have the crews to cover Eagle flying.

Republic has been caniballizing it's Q400 operation to support the AAG 175 flying. Rumor is by March they will have more 175's than available crews to fly them. They may have to raid their 145 ops or bust their contract with AAG.

 

[Thomas Paine]

Now that there's a TA that the negotiators thought was worth agreeing to, the ball over EGL's future is pretty much in the pilots' court.There's an estimated 3,000 pilot surplus once US & AA figure out what goes and what stays post-merger:http://skift.com/2013/08/29/regional-airlines-pilot-shortage-is-heading-toward-the-perfect-storm/The cynic in me says CEO's don't float trial balloons like "Comair II" without having some degree of confidence in their backup plan. I suspect they've already come up with a Plan B they feel they can execute.Management loves putting together contingency plans for just about any situation that they wouldn't be likely to incur, but I do believe that a pilot strike or having Eagle's certificate revoked might actually be something in the book, thanks to the business continuity planning required under law by Sarbaines-Oxley.It would create a month or two of havoc for small communities, long enough for Mesa, Republic, and Skywest to backfill the void, and maybe a few routes in some key cities like OKC and TUL getting mainline service temporarily. Having time to wind it down in an orderly fashion like DL did with Comair? Even less disruptive.

. We saw how well their back up plan worked at Spirit. Your extra pilots are a myth, the industry will lose more than that number before the two carriers merge their operations.

 

[nycbusdriver]

. We saw how well their back up plan worked at Spirit. Your extra pilots are a myth, the industry will lose more than that number before the two carriers merge their operations.

 
I am convinced that the "looming pilot shortage" that has been haunting the industry for over thirty years is now finally here.  In the Viet Nam/ Cold War era, the US military had a virtual assembly line making pilots at a furious pace.  Now, we are all at, or very near, mandatory retirement age.  (At about 1977, the government all but closed the spigot which had poured out military pilots in huge numbers.)
 
The FAA puts out numbers on new pilot "starts," and how many commercial licenses are issued each year.  The number is down significantly year-over-year, and the number of new Airline Transport Licenses (a realtively steep, i.e. expensive, requirement which is now mandatory) is down even further.  And even these numbers are deceiving, since most flight schools in the US will tell you that the majority of students getting the commercial license are foreign nationals with no permits allowing them to work in the US.
 
The law of supply and demand is getting ready to bite the collective butts of the major US carriers.  In five years, all those RJs will be sitting in the desert collecting dust while awaiting the blade and their future as beer cans (which would be a much better use of the aluminum anyway.)

 

[eolesen]

Mesa, Republic, and Skywest don't have the crews to cover Eagle flying.

Republic has been caniballizing it's Q400 operation to support the AAG 175 flying. Rumor is by March they will have more 175's than available crews to fly them. They may have to raid their 145 ops or bust their contract with AAG.

US and AA haven't thinned out the regional schedule yet. I'm assuming that they won't keep every route, and so was the guy who projected the 3,000 surplus pilots. At a minimum, we know they're going to reduce the schedules at DCA and LGA because of the slot divestitures.

Looking elsewhere:

• US's 7x EWR-PHL, 10x TUS-PHX, both of which are driving markets for the local traffic, and have feed to AA hubs for the eastbound/southbound traffic.
• CAE, with 3x to DFW, 7x to CLT and 3x to both DCA and PHL. Those 3x to DFW could disappear and nobody would notice.
• CLE has 1x JFK and 4x LGA. JFK easily can go away.
• AA's 4x CLT-LGA has to go away, which frees up another grouping of 70 seaters. Then there's AA's 6x CLT-ORD. Gone.
  
  

Just that list would eliminate close to 30 RT's a day for the regionals. And that's just what I saw before breakfast today.

Start applying that type of a scenario across the system, and you'd have a list of several hundred RJ markets which could be eliminated on 30 days notice, with passengers reacc'd on mainline to other hubs.

The promises to the various state AG's to "maintain service" presume the status quo. But a labor dispute? There's always an out clause for force majeure, whether it's written or not. Plus, those promises are just that -- promises. Not really enforceable at this point since the merger has been approved and closed...

 

[RJcasualty]

Based on your scenario, regional service to third tier cities would go the way of the post office. All investments to attract and maintain such service is money down the toilet. All efforts to attract business, industry--- jobs-- to those places through reliable regional air service was misplaced. Where are we headed with this?

 

[jimntx]

We won't really know unless the AE pilots call the bluff, will we?  Though, all this frantic hiring of new flight attendants may be part of Plan B--assuming they can increase mainline flying enough to at least minimize the effects of an AE shutdown.  Personally, I doubt it.  (But, then what do I know?  I'm a flight attendant.  I'm paid to be cute, not smart.  )

 

[RJcasualty]

Envoy's Agreement in Principle subject to ratification might be on thin ice. Breaking news from XJET on their pilot TA ratification vote:  "...a RESOUNDING NO!!! 91% participation. 83% No..." Regional pilots are starting to lay down the barricades. Shopping slave feed just got a little more complicated.

 

[Jacobin777]

Based on your scenario, regional service to third tier cities would go the way of the post office. All investments to attract and maintain such service is money down the toilet. All efforts to attract business, industry--- jobs-- to those places through reliable regional air service was misplaced. Where are we headed with this?

 
We've seen time and time again what happens when carriers merge. Many, many cities lose service and or frequency. I expect this situation to be no different. Actually worse since with only three larger carriers, there really isn't any incentive to fly to smaller cities which might bring down revenues and/or yields.