Another Colgan Rumor

Does that mean no downgrades either rob?

A CJC HR lady told me that until this month, they had a 50% attrition rate on the FO side for first year guys and that was a higher drop off than last year when other regionals and majors were hiring. She and a CJC captain said plainly that FO's could go bag groceries for more money and since there was no upgrade in sight they had no cause to stay. That doesn't sound shocking to me, but I was wondering if that was truly what CJC line pilots feel has been going on.

All I have heard is on the FO side. I have talked to a few schedulers and they have said that Captain side isnt too bad, but FO side is still hurting.

I just looked at our open time and it went from 250 hours of open time last week to 50 hours. Im assuming since everyone in my class is done with IOE, they lumped it all on us.
 
Does that mean no downgrades either rob?

A CJC HR lady told me that until this month, they had a 50% attrition rate on the FO side for first year guys and that was a higher drop off than last year when other regionals and majors were hiring. She and a CJC captain said plainly that FO's could go bag groceries for more money and since there was no upgrade in sight they had no cause to stay. That doesn't sound shocking to me, but I was wondering if that was truly what CJC line pilots feel has been going on.


As much as I'd love to believe that so my seniority would go up, it just hasnt been the case. My seniority number has barely moved since Feb.


As far as the next generation q's, that sucks id rather have more planes sooner.
 
As much as I'd love to believe that so my seniority would go up, it just hasnt been the case. My seniority number has barely moved since Feb.


As far as the next generation q's, that sucks id rather have more planes sooner.

Base seniority or crewweb seniority (under the employee data) or both?
 
In addition, Colgan reached agreement with Bombardier, the aircraft manufacturer, to convert the 30 firm cancelable/optional aircraft it has on order into the Q400 next generation cabin configuration. The next generation cabin configuration will include larger overhead storage bins, improved lighting, and modifications to increase the size of the cabin to enhance passenger comfort. As part of this agreement, the delivery positions for the 30 firm cancelable/optional aircraft have been deferred until mid-2010 after the next-generation cabin configuration has been introduced by Bombardier. Despite delays by the manufacturer in the delivery of the Q400 aircraft, Colgan's Q400 operation has been warmly received by Continental Airlines and its customers.

Am I reading this wrong, or has Colgan actually done nothing but essentially pushed the orders off until a later date? Does this mean that the current generation of Qs that are for sale will go to the next bidder, or are they just not making them?
 
I have heard from pretty much everyone that there wont be furloughs come November. There is still 200 hours of open time for Saab FOs for the rest of the month!

I have heard from a few people that if attrition continues the way it is, and we dont lose anymore flying to expect Colgan to be hiring come November. We run a damn lean ship.

On climbto350 Colgan has a page that says they are no longer hiring pilots but expect to resume later this year.
 
Am I reading this wrong, or has Colgan actually done nothing but essentially pushed the orders off until a later date? Does this mean that the current generation of Qs that are for sale will go to the next bidder, or are they just not making them?

Yeah, I was under the impression they would be getting more in 2009.
 
Am I reading this wrong, or has Colgan actually done nothing but essentially pushed the orders off until a later date? Does this mean that the current generation of Qs that are for sale will go to the next bidder, or are they just not making them?
Bombardier has totally switched over to manufacturing next gen series for all fleets.
 
Does that mean no downgrades either rob?

A CJC HR lady told me that until this month, they had a 50% attrition rate on the FO side for first year guys and that was a higher drop off than last year when other regionals and majors were hiring. She and a CJC captain said plainly that FO's could go bag groceries for more money and since there was no upgrade in sight they had no cause to stay. That doesn't sound shocking to me, but I was wondering if that was truly what CJC line pilots feel has been going on.

That would almost make sense. First year (and often second year) pay is so low at most regionals, that without the fast upgrade as a lure many FOs would probably wait until the next hiring upswing and get back on board. In the mean time they're doing something else and sweating the turns in the industry alot less.

"Going somewhere else to wait out the storm" if you have zero seniority/longevity seems like a pretty valid strategy, given current events.
 
That wouldn't surprise me one bit. I'm sure they'd do, or say, anything to maintain status quo.

i have heard it all right out of certain executives mouths......RJ's, saab 2000 has been inked, delta flying, chicago saab, chicago q, lax q, southwest feed, american is interested etc etc. i swear it is part of the retention program. anything but real contractual improvements.
 
there will be no newhire or upgrade classes this year. Straight from the training meting last week.
 
there will be no newhire or upgrade classes this year. Straight from the training meting last week.


With 4 1/2 months left in the year, and the way this industry is, there is no way you can call it already.

Back in April HR at Eagle told me that they where going to hire 700 pilots for the year, and if they had 700 new guys in November, they would probably still run December classes. Well we know what happened a month later.
 
It looks like we are going to lose 38% of our Saab fleet in the fourth quarter of 2008 with 10 additional lease returns on top of the previous 5 that were already announced. Ouch!
 
Rumors couldn't be further from the truth...

Q400 options pushed back until Spring 2010.

10 SAAB aircraft being removed from the fleet.

Pulling out of 13 markets.

10 SAAB aircraft, we may be looking at a lot more furloughs.
 
I can't stress this enough. Do not allow fear-mongering to ruin OUR company. We need ALPA representation and having them on property will not affect getting more Q's on property.


And I'll tell ya right now, it's straight outta the Pinnacle Holdings playbook to say "We're gonna lose this flying if you don't do XXXX" or "We can't get more flying if we give you XXXX." I heard both. The first one, they said we were gonna lose the NWA flying if we didn't sign the sub par contract on the table. A week later, we had a new agreement with NWA for 10 years. Then we heard the "won't get more flying." Not long after that, the Delta flying was announced. Although, management still likes to send out memos to the other employee groups blaming the pilots for the loss of the -900s to Mesaba, the 15 CRJs to Mesaba and some phantom contract for another carrier b/c we didn't sign a "fair" contract they offered. Trust me, they'll try to tell you guys any growth at Colgan will stop if you vote in a union. Don't listen to 'em.
 
According to the SEC filing from Pinnacle Holdings, Colgan almost broke even for the quarter!

Note: Not a slam on the pilots. More of a commentary on how management tries to run every aspect of their operation like they were flying for NWA. If you do one thing for several years, you apparently get tunnel vision.....
 
According to the SEC filing from Pinnacle Holdings, Colgan almost broke even for the quarter!

Note: Not a slam on the pilots. More of a commentary on how management tries to run every aspect of their operation like they were flying for NWA. If you do one thing for several years, you apparently get tunnel vision.....

Well...nobody knows how Colgan was doing before they were bought. Private company and all, perhaps we were hemorrhaging money pre-pinnacle? I still say that it's going to take a couple of quarters to make money with a new aircraft type though. I would like to know what they're going to do with the Saab though. It seems like there just isn't any preventive maintenance over on this side these days.
 
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