AMR Flight Department Hotline: June 1, 2012
“Good afternoon, this is CA John Hale with the Flight Department Hotline for Friday, June 1.
“This week Tom Horton provided a six-month update on our restructuring and clarified a few points that are worth repeating. This is especially true for pilots who, after a decade of career stagnation, can look forward to career growth.
“First, we have roughly 550 new aircraft on order – more than all legacy airlines combined. Think about that for a minute. And, we have options for another 500 aircraft available to us. Much has been made of our narrowbody fleet order from Boeing and Airbus that we announced nearly a year ago, probably because it was the largest in history. But, equally important, as part of those firm orders and options I mentioned, are more than 100 widebodies, including the state-of-the-art 787s and the 777-300 that we will be the first, and so far only, U.S. carrier to fly.
“And, further to Tom’s point, for us in the cockpit, the orders will help fuel significant mainline growth over the next five years. In fact, of the 20 percent capacity growth we plan by 2017, nearly 70 percent of it will be mainline flying on American jets, and the vast majority of it will come in international markets. This growth is being carefully matched with projections for expected traffic demand in markets around the world. Growth centers like Brazil, for example, where we just applied for 17 additional weekly frequencies to begin later this year.
“But what does this growth mean for you personally? Simply put, it means increased earnings and career progression. There has been a lot of misinformation on this point. Let me speak straight – our current term sheet calls for about 400 pilots to be furloughed in 2012, so there is some job loss in the near-term associated with the plan. But we expect the 20 percent growth to trigger an increase in pilot positions over time that will more than offset any short-term job loss. In fact, we expect our growth plan to result in more than 2,500 new and recalled pilot jobs over the next five years – that includes the impact of the expected furloughs in the near-term, as well as normal expectations for retirements and attrition – which leads to about 1,300 Captain upgrades. The point is that a lot of opportunity is about to come knocking.
“It doesn’t stop there. With the growth and career progression, pilots can expect to increase their W-2 earnings anywhere from 10 to more than 30 percent, and that doesn’t even include the first dollar profit sharing that the company has proposed.
“These are real numbers. They’re carefully calculated and carefully projected. I wouldn’t commit to them if they weren’t.
“As you know, the labor agreements we are trying to reach consensually — along with the $1 billion in incremental revenue growth we expect from more codesharing, fleet gauge flexibility, improved products and the growth of our international joint businesses – are key to our plan to put American back on top. I’m not saying it will be easy. It hasn’t been. But I truly believe it will be worth it. The sacrifices we make today will secure our opportunities for tomorrow.
“You deserve to benefit from these plans – it’s time. You work hard every single day in the cockpit and have earned the career and pay progression provided for you in this plan. The company is giving us clear numbers of what our workforce could look like. I don’t take that lightly, and I hope neither do you.
“That’s all for today. Fly aggressively safe, take care of each other, and have some fun out there. We’ll talk with you again next week. Thanks for all you d
o.”
American Airlines chief pilot offers the lure of new airplanes, growth
http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2012/06/while-i-was-gone-1-american-airlines-chief-pilot-offers-the-lure-of-new-airplanes-growth.html/
APA, American Airlines begin talks mediated by bankruptcy judge
http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2012/06/while-i-was-gone-2-apa-american-airlines-begin-talks-mediated-by-bankruptcy-judge.html/