An Email from United's New CEO

[SlumTodd_Millionaire]

Agreed. And frankly, I've been very happy with Delta's business class product. Even USAirways was pretty nice when I took them a few flights. Most people who have the extra cash for a better product but not enough cash to charter are probably content with what the legacies are offering in the first class product. My complaints are never with the airline, and always with the rest of the experience (airport parking, the TSA, etc.).

 

[wheelsup]

Where they lose money, yes. I know it's crazy talk not wanting to fly airplanes at a loss.
In other cases, however, they got airplanes. The 15 ERJs from American, for example. Initially we were underbid for them. AAL realized, however, that the winner could not man all the airplanes they bid on and awarded them to SkyWest. Since the ERJ is the realm of LXJT, they got the flying.

That was just a ploy to bring Eagle to their knees. It worked.

 

[Blackhawk]

That was just a ploy to bring Eagle to their knees. It worked.

Yeah, cause Expressjet pilots are paid so much less than Eagle pilots.

 

[wheelsup]

Yeah, cause Expressjet pilots are paid so much less than Eagle pilots.

If you don't understand what went down I really can't make you see it.

Management is always two steps in front of the pilot group. They have a long term plan, we can't see past next weeks paycheck.

 

[mshunter]

Yeah, cause Expressjet pilots are paid so much less than Eagle pilots.

Pilots are but a small part of the "money pie."

Example:

Delta claims 80k employees, but has what, 12,000'ish pilots?

Edit: I don't disagree with what you say though.

 

[Dexter]

If you don't understand what went down I really can't make you see it.

Management is always two steps in front of the pilot group. They have a long term plan, we can't see past next weeks paycheck.

But if you speak to any intelligent pilot they'll tell you the guys making millions of dollars a year to manage 10s of thousands of employees are complete jackasses who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. No CEO of an airline plans more than a couple weeks down the road, according to them.

 

[Blackhawk]

If you don't understand what went down I really can't make you see it.

Management is always two steps in front of the pilot group. They have a long term plan, we can't see past next weeks paycheck.

I think you are the one that needs to look around. Eagle is not the only regional that has lost flying, though I understand how they are attempting to punish your group by moving aircraft to PSA. At the same time legacy carriers that wanted to pit FFDs against each other in order to lower costs are faced with a new paradigm- some of the bottom feeder FFDs are not able to fulfil their contracts.
Dexter does have a good point. On the one hand we talk about how stupid management is, then in the next breath we say they are diabolical geniuses whipsawing the pilot groups around.
The FFD landscape is changing. It will be interesting to see which ones succeed, which ones are absorbed, and which ones fail. We'll see.