Airnet days numbered

jsb172

New Member
Ok fellow starcheckers... IMHO the fat lady is wariming up. I don't see this place making it to much farther than the end of the first quarter. Things are looking very grim. I would love to hear some opinions.......... Let 'em rip
 
Opinions or predictions?

Opinions - The flight department got rid of the wrong people, or maybe "kept the wrong people" is more in line with what I'm thinking. Most will know who and probably agree with what I'm talking about there.

Predictions - Merger (with flx) announced by April 1.

Pure speculation and utter bullhooey - FLX management is probably out buying staplers as we speak.

-mini
 
I can't imagine that they'd staple...they're far too cheap. All that extra training costs money. If there were a merger, I'd expect everyone to stay on whatever they're currently flying, at least in the short term. Me, I'll be hoping there's no such thing.
 
I would say fold the corners over eachother if that. Isn't that bunny ear? Meh. Good luck old friends.
 
I say this as someone whose gone from Lear Captain to prop captain in 6 months, I think Airnet will survive long enough for everyone there now to get out, for the most part. Airnet and FLX list will be merged. I think senority will be relatively preserved because Bayside probably doesn't mind the 210 guys making less then our lear guys, they'll take care of the lear payrolls by just dropping the runs.
Bayside is a evil evil company. Or maybe a good company that destroys "good" places in an effort to make the most money. I think the Flight Department cuts were justified. I'm good friends with one of those that got cut and I still feel that way. If we are cutting pilots there should be the same amount of instructors.
I have no problems with the Flight Department, they are angels compared to Jorge and Bayside.
 
Sadly, I think mike's synopsis is probably right on target. At this point, I'm just hoping as many guys stay employed on both lists as is possible. It's getting really bleak out there. Best of luck. I've recently become so convinced of the larger economic collapse headed our way that I'll just be grateful if I can continue to fly the rubber dog doo for a paycheck that isn't denominated in monopoly money.
 
In my experience, if there's any inclination that the company will shut down, it's a lot closer than you think.
 
I don't see them combining the list and/or the entire company. I just think it would take to much effort. Insurance, mx, training, dispatch and all the little items that go into a merger. Bayside doesn't want to put forth that much effort. Again, my opinion. I heard they canceled newspaper/magazine subscriptions and even possibly the cable at LCK. Scraping the bottom of the Barrel folks. I don't know anything about Gemini, but I am assuming Bayside ran it into the grand in a similar fashion. We'll find out (soon i bet)
 
I don't see them combining the list and/or the entire company. I just think it would take to much effort. Insurance, mx, training, dispatch and all the little items that go into a merger. Bayside doesn't want to put forth that much effort. Again, my opinion.
Not that hard. Shut down one certificate, move the pilots and personnel from the other certificate over to it. Move the airframes.

If they were going that route, it would make more sense to shut down the FLX certificate since they wouldn't have to add the LRJET, C208 and PA31 to the airnet certificate, only the C210.

If they added LRJET to the FLX Certificate, I believe they'd be stuck with proving runs. That's pricey.

Of course, this assumes Bayside isn't interested in just selling the assets, in which case it's probably better to surrender the USC Certificate and move those people to the FLX Ops. While a 30 year old cargo lear with tons of cycles on it won't fetch much on the current market, it's better than nothing.


I heard they canceled newspaper/magazine subscriptions and even possibly the cable at LCK. Scraping the bottom of the Barrel folks.
Don't forget not renewing the WSI contracts. IIRC, there wasn't Cable at LCK but DirecTV.

I don't know anything about Gemini, but I am assuming Bayside ran it into the grand in a similar fashion. We'll find out (soon i bet)
Gotta love George. I wonder what kind of bonus he gets from Bayside when they shut the doors on a company he's in charge of...

-mini
 
Staple the FLX guys to the bottom of the list. Fences to protect their runs are fine, but an integration by DOH would be unacceptable.
 
The WSI contracts are being eliminated due to the expense of paying for computers, antennas, etc at locations where the WSI machine wasn't even being used (Airnet was paying for WSI in a lot of locations where the pilots were just using the FBO facilities and computers). This has been in the works for at least a year so this isn't a new "bottom of the barrel" scraping deal this was going on before Bayside. There will be a new, web-based (not sure if it's through WSI or not) deal that all Airnet pilots can access via computer. It is much less expensive than maintaining all the WSI machines and offers our pilots a lot more flexibility out on the road.
 
If they were to merge the list what would they do about pay equity. I know FLX guys who work 6 hours. They get paid for 6. At airnet if I'm only at work 6 hours I get paid for 10. Not to mention 9th and 10th days being overtime, which is not the case at FLX.. They would either have to raise the pay for the FLX guys to a minimum 10 hours or they would have to drop ours to the FLX method. Straight up hourly pay. No overtime, no rig rate. I don't see Bayside rasing anyone's pay, and if they tried to lower ours, they would have a riot on their hands. Just one of several issues they would have to deal with.
 
If they were to merge the list what would they do about pay equity. I know FLX guys who work 6 hours. They get paid for 6. At airnet if I'm only at work 6 hours I get paid for 10. Not to mention 9th and 10th days being overtime, which is not the case at FLX.. They would either have to raise the pay for the FLX guys to a minimum 10 hours or they would have to drop ours to the FLX method. Straight up hourly pay. No overtime, no rig rate. I don't see Bayside rasing anyone's pay, and if they tried to lower ours, they would have a riot on their hands. Just one of several issues they would have to deal with.

I know I don't understand Airnet's pay system, and I'm pretty sure you don't understand FLX's. No one at FLX works 6 hours and get paid for 6, they'd be paid for at least 7.5, the minimum daily rate. What are 9th and 10th days? No one at FLX works any "overtime", as far as I understand the term. Your days off are off, the whole place shuts down over the weekend. There are no reserve pilots, everyone has a run.
 
I know I don't understand Airnet's pay system, and I'm pretty sure you don't understand FLX's. No one at FLX works 6 hours and get paid for 6, they'd be paid for at least 7.5, the minimum daily rate. What are 9th and 10th days? No one at FLX works any "overtime", as far as I understand the term. Your days off are off, the whole place shuts down over the weekend. There are no reserve pilots, everyone has a run.
I'll try to explain this.
Airnet pay is rig based. Basically you take flight time plus half your duty and add them together.
Ex. 4.5 hours of flying + 7 hours of duty = 8
Minimum rig is 10. Anything over 10 has a several multipliers to qualify as overtime.
An "Airnet week" is 4 days. Thus 8 days in a pay period. If your run is 5 days then you would have "9th and 10th" days added to your paycheck at at a overtime multiplier.
9th and 10th day are a significant amount, it really adds up.
We have floaters which cover for sick time and vacations and training. Each pilot receives at least 2 weeks vacation.
Thanks to Flight Express now being the model of being lean and mean our reserve staffing is being cut down. Our vacation time I would imagine is next on the chopping block.
Airnet was a GREAT 135 freight company. They exceeded many with benefits such as 401k, vacation time, medical, and jumpseat access that others only dream about.
Bayside looks at all of this as excess and wants us "lean and mean" like Flight Express.
If this thread were up a few forums in the Airline Pilot section we would be pushing to deny FLX guys a ride to work and all that nonsense because they aren't "jacking the house" but they are taking the jobs.
We haven't gotten to that point but I will say it's worth mention that even though Airnet pilots are being relatively civil about FLX pilots gaining employment while we are furloughing, it's not exactly a good thing "for the industry"....whatever the #### that means.
 
Why because it would negatively affect you?


Here is my reasoning, when somebody hired on at FLX they did not have any expectations other than to fly 210s and Barons. When I hired on at AirNet I did have upgrade expectations. I do not personally think it would be fair to have my upgrade time to a lear delayed because a FLX pilot is put on the list senior to me, it would be a windfall to the FLX pilot to the detriment of the AirNet pilots.

Now I also do not think we should be screwing FLX pilots. I believe that AirNet pilots should not be displacing FLX Baron pilots, no FLX pilots should loose their current run or seat position, no FLX pilots should be furloughed in order to recall AirNet pilots. I am not looking to screw the FLX pilots, I just do not want to get screwed either. That is why I would suggest something like fences to protect the FLX guys.

Now I also understand that lear upgrades are almost a moot point with the current environment, but I still think it is something that needs to be considered.
 
If this thread were up a few forums in the Airline Pilot section we would be pushing to deny FLX guys a ride to work and all that nonsense because they aren't "jacking the house" but they are taking the jobs.
We haven't gotten to that point but I will say it's worth mention that even though Airnet pilots are being relatively civil about FLX pilots gaining employment while we are furloughing, it's not exactly a good thing "for the industry"....whatever the #### that means.
Isn't that the damn truth!?

I hope it stays classy so I can remain proud to say I worked at Airnet...for however brief a time.

-mini
 
Now I also do not think we should be screwing FLX pilots. I believe that AirNet pilots should not be displacing FLX Baron pilots, no FLX pilots should loose their current run or seat position, no FLX pilots should be furloughed in order to recall AirNet pilots. I am not looking to screw the FLX pilots, I just do not want to get screwed either. That is why I would suggest something like fences to protect the FLX guys.
How do you do that while protecting the meaning of "seniority"? Someone is going to get screwed. I'd love to see a stapler used, as a guy on furlough, but that isn't really the right thing to do for everyone as a whole.

If you staple, then an Airnet guy is going to be able to bump a FLX guy off of his route (or vice versa). If you integrate, then the lowest on the seniority list (by DOH) are the ones that get screwed (as much as I hate to say it, rightly so). And honestly, how many guys at FLX have been there for more than 3, 4, 5 years? I'd rather see integration by date of 135 PIC qualifications than DOH, but that screws other guys.

The bottom line is at the end of the day someone's going to get screwed.

...I just wanted to use "bottom line" and "end of the day" before I retired for the day.

-mini
 
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