What Does The Industry Have In Store?

[Checking it Out]

The last few years have been difficult for the Airlines, With Delta announcing up to 675 million in losses tomorrow, United going back and asking for lower wages and pension to be terminated, ATA and USAir looking more likely to close the doors. The Unions are defenseless against the rising low cost carriers and 55 dollar a barrel oil. We can only speculate about the future.

AA and other carriers are expected to report dismal results this week, are we going to see more adjustments in lost jobs and wages within the industry? Are we going to see more adjustments with mergers and additional grounding of aircraft?

Experts are saying we have to much capacity and the low cost carriers are dictating the air fares.

At what point is enough, enough? Are we going to end up working in poverty before it is all said and done?


I hope we can make it through the tough times that lye ahead and my heart goes out to all who have been affected and who will be affected in the future!

 

[Buck]

The last few years have been difficult for the Airlines, With Delta announcing up to 675 million in losses tomorrow, United going back and asking for lower wages and pension to be terminated, ATA and USAir looking more likely to close the doors. The Unions are defenseless against the rising low cost carriers and 55 dollar a barrel oil. We can only speculate about the future.

AA and other carriers are expected to report dismal results this week, are we going to see more adjustments in lost jobs and wages within the industry? Are we going to see more adjustments with mergers and additional grounding of aircraft?

Experts are saying we have to much capacity and the low cost carriers are dictating the air fares.

At what point is enough, enough? Are we going to end up working in poverty before it is all said and done?
I hope we can make it through the tough times that lye ahead and my heart goes out to all who have been affected and who will be affected in the future!

[post="192771"][/post]​

One thing for sure TWU "represented" mechanics have a head start on the poverty. Is this what the TWU has in store for it's members, more wage and benefit cuts?

 

[Decision 2004]

CIO,

Who's freaking idea was it to reduce wages and "save" 12,000 jobs and three maintenance bases?

You are a complete moron!

Advocating wage concessions in exchange for jobs, when history tells you this will NOT work.

And now, after being the leader in concessions, you come here whimpering about poverty?

Oh, don't worry wise one, you still have your two topped out income household and your Union Officer Salary to boot. At least for now.

And tell us Mr AFL-CIO, where is that 35 million man army that is suppose to save me from the Corporate Greed and Evil Politicians?

Another TWU Pipe Dream? Or another faceless industrial union threat?

Now you realize that the TWU negotiators left over $600 Million on the table for Title 1 alone, and you want to blame the industry? When AMFA makes a mistake, you pound your chest about how weak and failing you perceive that organization to be, and when your won union cannot even add concession packages properly, you still want to place blame elsewhere.

Get Real Pal!

Better yet, take alook around and realize that Politicians, Sign Factories, and Walking Preciincts, is not the answer, paying our union dues to back stabbing politicians is not the answer.

But getting rid of cowards that lead our unions and shutting down the transportation system in the USA might get some attention.

 

[Bob Owens]

Checking it Out,Oct 20 2004, 01:09 AM]
The last few years have been difficult for the Airlines, With Delta announcing up to 675 million in losses tomorrow, United going back and asking for lower wages and pension to be terminated, ATA and USAir looking more likely to close the doors. The Unions are defenseless against the rising low cost carriers and 55 dollar a barrel oil. We can only speculate about the future.

I dont know about the unions being defenseless but the workers at AA sure as hell are, the have the TWU!

The Union represented mechanics at LCC SWA are doing pretty good.

AA and other carriers are expected to report dismal results this week, are we going to see more adjustments in lost jobs and wages within the industry? Are we going to see more adjustments with mergers and additional grounding of aircraft?

Experts are saying we have to much capacity and the low cost carriers are dictating the air fares.

At what point is enough, enough? Are we going to end up working in poverty before it is all said and done?



Now you are worrying? You didnt seem to care that the Line guys have been struggling all along.

I hope we can make it through the tough times that lye ahead and my heart goes out to all who have been affected and who will be affected in the future!

Yea, I'll bet it does! Back when UAL was threatening to try and get a judge to abrogate the labor agreements at UAL I sent out an E-mail saying that when the first contract is voided we should all walk off the job. Jim Little demanded that I retract the statement because he did not want to end up in court! What a wuss! We were given a promise 20 years ago that the airlines would not be able to use bankruptcy to void labor agreements. The unions lacked the fortitude to stand up and fight, its not the unions that are defenseless is the workers that are represented by these weak excuses for unions!

Its pitiful whining defeatest union leaders like yourself that have helped ruin the labor movement. If leaders such as Quill, Hoffa, Mother Jones and Debs could see what has happened to the labor movement it would make them sick! Workers wages and benifits being given away by corrupt leaders who give themselves raises while the workers take cuts. They would see the problems immediatly, company unionism. Unionism that is more concerned about the Treasury than the member. The biggest union battles were not fought in the best of times they were fought in the worst of times.

THE TWU WILL NEVER STRIKE AT AA-Ed Koziatek 2000.

That says it all.

 

[Decision 2004]

Another question for CIO,

If AMFA called for a Nation Wide Mechanics walk out next week, would you show up for work?

 

[Bob Owens]

Another question for CIO,

If AMFA called for a Nation Wide Mechanics walk out next week, would you show up for work?

[post="192797"][/post]​

Well if he doesnt you know where he will be. Scabbing over at SWA so he can enjoy the pay and benifits that real union workers get.

 

[Checking it Out]

Amfa can not even drum up 100 people for a rally and Amfa is also a major contributer to the demise of the Mechanic and Related downward spiral!

The Industry is changing, the TWU seen it coming, we made a smart move by not going to BK. All we have to do is look at United and USAir and see, we made the smart choice at the time! Are we out of the woods? Not by a long shot! Will we see more adjustments at AA? You Bet! Will we see more adjustments in the Industry? Yes!

At What Point is enough? Enough?

 

[Checking it Out]

Commuter Jet Crashes in Mo., Killing Eight

By DAVID A. LIEB

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - A twin-engine turboprop commuter plane crashed in the woods about three miles from the airport where it was preparing to land, killing at least eight of the 15 people on board, officials said.

At least two people survived the crash Tuesday night and were being treated at a hospital, and five others were missing, said Adair County Chief Deputy Larry Logston. The American Airlines-affiliated Corporate Airlines flight from St. Louis was carrying 13 passengers and two crew members, both of whom died, Logston said.






The last communication from the Jetstream 32 indicated it was on a normal approach to Kirksville Regional Airport in northeastern Missouri, and there was no mention of any problems, said Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Chicago.

Logston said the plane's flight data recorder was recovered. Emergency crews searched woods and open fields early Wednesday for the missing passengers.

Weather conditions at the time of the crash were overcast with misting and some thunderstorms in the area, according to an FAA weather observation system. It wasn't immediately known if it was storming where the plane went down or if weather was a factor.

The plane _ Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 _ was on a regular route from St. Louis when it crashed shortly after 7:50 p.m., Cory said.

Emergency crews reached the site about three miles south of the airport and found the fuselage engulfed in flames and largely intact, with the wings broken off but nearby, Logston said. All eight of those known dead were found in the fuselage, some still in their seats and the two crew members in the cockpit area, he said.

The plane had clipped treetops before crashing on its belly, and the wreckage was scattered over an area about one mile across, he said.

A female survivor was walking around when rescuers arrived, and a male survivor was found in brush about 25 feet from the fuselage, Logston said. Rescue crews were still hoping to find survivors, he said, but added that the two who did make it were discovered "so close to the plane we're imagining the others probably should have been close to the plane if they survived."

The survivors were being treated at Northeast Regional Medical Center in Kirksville, said Larry Rodgers, a spokesman for the hospital. He said both were stable, but had no information about the extent of their injuries.

"As the physicians evaluate them, we should know more," he said.

Corporate Airlines, based in Smyrna, Tenn., began operating in 1996 and is affiliated with American Airlines. As AmericanConnection, Corporate provides 70 flights from 13 cities in the Midwest to St. Louis and Nashville.

Doug Caldwell, Corporate Airlines' CEO, said the crash was the airline's first fatal accident. The company has 250 employees and flies 17 Jetstream 32s. The airline was trying to contact the families of all the passengers Tuesday night, he said.

"On behalf of Corporate Airlines, I want to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of the passengers of flight 5966," Caldwell said in a news release. The statement also said the airline could not speculate as to the cause of the crash.

There was no immediate comment from American Airlines.

Kirksville is about 220 miles northwest of St. Louis.

On the Net:

Our Heart and Prayers go out to the family and friends!

 

[Checking it Out]

Posted on Wed, Oct. 20, 2004


Fuel prices, low fares crush airlines' hopes

As the year began, the major carriers thought the 2d half would mark an end to 3 years of losses. They were wrong.

By Tom Belden

Inquirer Staff Writer


When 2004 dawned, the outlook for the major airlines was upbeat, full of hope that at least the second half would be the end of three dismal years of losses.

But the release of airlines' third-quarter results this week reveals just how far off the forecasts were, with high fuel prices and travelers' demands for low fares swamping virtually every carrier in red ink.

"Another grim quarter," analyst Jamie Baker of J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. in New York warned investors in a report earlier this month.

Baker estimated that U.S. carriers would lose $1.2 billion in the three months ended Sept. 30, a figure many other Wall Street watchers agree with. Losses for the year could approach $6 billion, on top of the $23 billion drained away from 2001 through 2003, and that may not be the end of it, the analysts say.

"We're clearly seeing the impact of soaring fuel prices and a weak revenue environment," said analyst William T. Warlick of Fitch Ratings in Chicago. "Crude oil at $50-plus a barrel and the absence of pricing power... is contributing to a very gloomy outlook, and there's no reason to think 2005 will be any better."

Continental Airlines Inc. yesterday reported a third-quarter loss of $16 million, or 24 cents a share. Analysts anticipate that American Airlines' parent AMR Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., and Northwest Airlines' parent NWA Inc. also will report losses today.

Even newer low-cost, low-fare airlines, including America West Holdings Corp., AirTran Holdings Inc. and ATA Airlines Inc., are expected to lose money.

Southwest Airlines Co. is the only exception among the big carriers. Thanks largely to its strategy of buying advance jet-fuel contracts that locked in lower prices, the Dallas-based discounter reported last week that it made $119 million in the third quarter.

Within weeks, half of the major-airline seats in the sky could be flown by carriers operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The No. 7 carrier, US Airways Group Inc., filed for bankruptcy Sept. 12 for the second time in two years, and No. 2 United Airlines Inc. has been there since December 2002.

Next to retreat into Chapter 11, analysts say, will be Delta, the third-largest airline, once a consistently profitable company that has huge debts and the high labor costs that most older carriers have.

Analysts' forecasts early this year for a healthy recovery were based on oil's staying below about $35 a barrel - almost $20 less than recent crude prices. For each $1-a-barrel price increase, U.S. airlines have to shell out an additional $425 million for jet fuel, according to the Air Transport Association, the major carriers' trade group.

The airline industry's worst third quarters on record were in 2001 and 2002, but other factors were at work then, the analysts said.

Unlike those quarters, "both punctuated by 9/11 and its immediate aftermath, fuel is the primary culprit behind this year's loss," Baker, the J.P. Morgan analyst, said. "Had oil remained at year-ago third-quarter levels, the industry would have posted nearly a $200 million profit this quarter."

Pressure to keep fares low, caused mostly by the steady expansion of Southwest, AirTran, and other low-fare carriers, has been another big contributor to the losses, the analysts say.

The big airlines tried repeatedly in recent months to add $10 to the price of every one-way ticket to help offset their soaring fuel bills, but backed off when one or more competitors would not go along. Eventually, American succeeded in raising fares by $5 per one-way ticket, a move others matched.

The airlines' financial troubles have set up a situation that analysts and industry officials alike say is unsustainable and that cries out for fresh thinking about what to do about it. The nightmare scenario is that two or more bankrupt carriers shut down, leaving thousands of people unemployed in the travel industry and dozens of communities with little or no air service.

The Business Travel Coalition, the Radnor-based advocacy group for companies and travelers, called last week for Congress to develop policies that could be put in place should even more than three major airlines wind up in Bankruptcy Court. The group suggested that Congress could assign the task to the Transportation Research Board, a unit of the National Academy of Sciences.

Coalition chairman Kevin P. Mitchell said other airlines eventually may replace the service provided by failed carriers. But the danger is that a simultaneous collapse could lead to calls for another bailout of the industry - the government provided billions in loans and grants to airlines after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - or a return to regulation of fares and service, he said.

"Hopefully, the airline industry will avert a collapse," Mitchell said. "However, like airline executives, government policymakers would find themselves with few good choices in a time of crisis if no debate and planning occur until it is far too late."

 

[Hopeful]

CIO:

From the articles you posted, Ithink its safe to say that AA will be dipping into our wallets by year's end!

 

[local 12 proud]

CIO:

From the articles you posted, Ithink its safe to say that AA will be dipping into our wallets by year's end!

[post="192870"][/post]​

yes and its all labors fault that we are in this predicament, we should all work for third party wages and benefits while management and the union bosses continue to get their raises and bonuses. weve been losing money ever since the bright idea of carty to buy TWA which was before 9/11 was enacted, yet its buisness as usual at AA. they will soon be crying we are on the steps of the courthouse and if major concession's are not extracted you all will be without a job and of course their lap dog union will be saying " look at all the jobs we saved" the only thing that sucks worse than this industry is the TWU :down: :down: :down:

 

[Hopeful]

yes and its all labors fault that we are in this predicament, we should all work for third party wages and benefits while management and the union bosses continue to get their raises and bonuses. weve been losing money ever since the bright idea of carty to buy TWA which was before 9/11 was enacted, yet its buisness as usual at AA. they will soon be crying we are on the steps of the courthouse and if major concession's are not extracted you all will be without a job and of course their lap dog union will be saying " look at all the jobs we saved" the only thing that sucks worse than this industry is the TWU :down: :down: :down:

[post="192890"][/post]​

LOcal 12 proud:

You have it all wrong! "IT'S AMFA'S FAULT!"

 

[Ken MacTiernan]

cio: "Are we out of the woods? Not by a long shot! Will we see more adjustments at AA? You Bet! Will we see more adjustments in the Industry? Yes!"

More adjustments? You mean more concessions. You claim the twu made the right decisions at the time. Why didn't the twu demand snap backs? Why does the twu still operate as if nothing has happened? Where is the response to your unelected leaders demand for proof of a shared sacrifice?

 

[The Dissident]

AT LEAST YOU GOT A JOB BROTHERRRRRRRRRR!

 

[Buck]

No concessions, just Continuous Improvement.

At our combined AA/TWU meeting today the managing director said that it will be CI that will provide for the opening of at least two more Aircraft Overhaul Lines and if everything goes well, many different parts from many different companies.

The Chairman of Maintenance of TWU Local 514 guaranteed that with the layoffs of 100 on the line and 400 at MCI and another 150 at STL, that no one in TUL would be laid off.