Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilots...

Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

SoCalAprch said:
Well they need to run a leaner middle management. Im not one of the arm chair CEOs over at A.net but other regionals are very competitive and have good QOL and pay. I admit that if you wanna get ahold of someone about your parking pass you are gonna go through a 5 day ordeal but I would rather have that then lowering my pay or loosing flying. How does Skywest or Republic always seem to offer the best prices yet still post the biggest profits and keep their crews happy? Everyones playing the same game...
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I'm not sure how much pilot contracts correlate to rates that the regionals offer to major but Im don't think XJET's high bids has that much to do with pilot pay. Otherwise MESA would have a monopoly:) The thing is Skywest Inc and Republic Holdings have diversified fleets. XJET only has the 50s, which are being phased out slowly industry wide. I know Continental has the scope clause but management has found a way around that with the Q400, which has already invaded XJET's EWR flying. Who's to say IAH is not next? Year ago XJET was my top choice being from Dallas. After research I decided not to apply. Best of luck to all the XJetters.

In regard to the branded flying, guys come on, lets not sugarcoat things. Lets be realistic. Oil is $105 a barrel and climbing....
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

It's kind of sad but not surprsing to see the foaming at the mouth "I told you so! I told you so!" type of posts from some members of this forum. Those of who were around in 03-04 saw how many employees of other airlines were incredibly eager for USAirways and United to liquidate and eliminate excess capacity in the industry. It was disgusting. Many had no compassion whatsovever for their counterparts who were in dire straits. I think the lesson we can learn from that is that no matter how much you may want an airline to go out of business (and I certainly get the impression that some people on here feel that way), it takes an awful lot to actually make that happen, yes even a "regional". Xjet is still a fair distance from bankruptcy. Things are certainly looking bleak, I'll admit. I've disagreed with management's strategies with regard to the 69 airplanes from day 1, but I'm in no position to second guess them and will support their business plan as long as they don't try and subsidize it with my paycheck.

I think the COLA's are a good thing. I've thought about taking a COLA myself to finish my degree, but I'm only flying 3-5 days a month on reserve as it is, so I see no reason to give up my monthly guarantee in exchange for an extra 3 - 5 days off.
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

I don't think anyone wants XJT to go out of business. The "I told you so" is justified however. You guys would be in the same situation had oil dropped to $40/bbl, as the other carriers can lower their costs just as much. I don't think it has anything to do with oil, more to do with increasingly slower demand, lack of pricing power, and the fact that the 50 seat RJ holds 1/3 as many people as a 737 but costs 2x the cost to operate per seat mile...it's a loss leader, always has been always will be.

I applaud XJT management for not cutting back their payroll but if it bankrupts the company and everyone loses their job you're all in the same situation. I'm actually kinda surprised my company is still operating in this industry, we are FAR AND ABOVE the most expensive carrier and certainly don't provide "quality" service anymore, ever since separation from UAL.

Edited (because I don't want to sound like a prick) - I hope stuff turns around, XJT is a class act operation. Maybe Mesa will go TU and you'll get all their stuff, with bigger planes and a payraise! :)
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

Hang in there XJET folks, if you can take advantage of this do some traveling, get back to GA flying, take some classes, (for future side gigs) or some side work and make some cash! Things will hopefully turn around for you guys soon.

Sending some good karma your way.....now. :)
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

FlyingPoke said:
:banghead:

Is this a joke... this guy is throwing every bad cliche out there, "Im just gonna be here a while before I go to a Major"... "Take a pay cut to help the company out"..."Im gonna get 1000 PIC TURBINE ASAP, PS I dont know how to fly through a could yet!"... this seems like a flame bait inspired user... avatar included
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Gee, you think? I'm amazed how many are being taken by this idiot.
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

DAL/CAL reduced XJT's block hours. Also, XJT is reducing their block hours for their Branded operation starting on April 1. A sampling of the xjet.com fares brings up ridiculously low fares for many stations. It doesn't matter how full your flights are if you are charging low fares for long haul flights on an RJ! :confused: This news of COLA's should be refreshing compared to the bombshell that will be dropped on Monday's XJT Q4 Earnings call. Their is a reason this call was delayed for two months and it wasn't just to announce a "COLA"
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

jtrain609 said:
Well what do you want Velo, guys working for the lowest bidder who undercuts YOUR flying and does it without a union but is assured to have a job? Or do you want folks trying to raise the bar and as Bob said very accurately, not dropping rates so we can suck off CAL's tit a little bit more?

Do you want pay rates or security? Because they don't seem to go hand in hand. For somebody that bashes JetBlue pilots it appalls me that you'll say, "Oh, well, we saw this all coming!" because the necessary implication is that ExpressJet pays their pilots too well and costs too much.

Point and shoot all you want, you'll just show yourself to be a hypocrite.
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As usual, train, you completely missed the message. So I'll repeat it:

YOU CANNOT MAKE MONEY WITH 50 SEAT RJs WITHOUT SUBSIDIES!
Get it? Got it? Good!
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

You could make money on 50 seat RJs without subsidies if you priced the ticket appropriately, I guess the problem there is that nobody would ever buy your tickets though.
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

SpiraMirabilis said:
You could make money on 50 seat RJs without subsidies if you priced the ticket appropriately, I guess the problem there is that nobody would ever buy your tickets though.
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What about corporate flights?

Convinced those don't make a profit?
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

Different customer as MaxJet found out.

Chartering an entire airplane to one organization is probably profitable but that is not even close to the same kind of operation as selling tickets to individuals who can individually discriminate on the price.
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

SpiraMirabilis said:
Different customer as MaxJet found out.
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MaxJet was an airline flying scheduled routes in an all-business class configuration. That's not corporate/charter flying. Singapore is about to start the same thing from SIN to LAX and EWR: no economy class offered.

I was suggesting chartering a jet. Do critics of the 50 seat airline also remain skeptical of 50 seat charters, was what I was bringing up.
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

Two things...

On a 50 seat charter... are all 50 seats full?

On a 50 seat charter... does the plane still go if there is nobody wanting to go?

A charter op can't be compared to normal scheduled ops. Every time a charter flight takes off, it (theoretically) will be guaranteed a profit. The trick of course is making the plane take off enough to generate enough profit to stay alive.
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

Nick said:
MaxJet was an airline flying scheduled routes in an all-business class configuration. That's not corporate/charter flying. Singapore is about to start the same thing from SIN to LAX and EWR: no economy class offered.

I was suggesting chartering a jet. Do critics of the 50 seat airline also remain skeptical of 50 seat charters, was what I was bringing up.
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Theres nothing wrong with 50 seat charters just like theres nothing wrong with 8 seat. The customers though are different, still. The type of people who charter airplanes don't usually want to sit in a coach-type seat (even if it is leather) on an ERJ for hours. There can't be a huge number of organizations that need an entire 50 seat aircraft on a regular basis either. I can see a large company chartering an aircraft to take all their managers to a meeting out of town just to save time on logistics but that can't be something that happens more than once or twice a year per company.
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

Velo and Co.,

The facts stand, even with oil at $105, XJT's branded operation as a stand alone entity, needs 35 people on board to make a profit. The point was reiterated by Jim Ream and Fred Cromer at the Raymond James conference and again recently on an all pilot conference call.
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

jumping in this thread way too late. Xjet has had an excellent reputation as a company since I got into aviation and I hope they come out on top. I have tons of friends over there and wish the entire pilot group the best.
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

meritflyer said:
Velo and Co.,

The facts stand, even with oil at $105, XJT's branded operation as a stand alone entity, needs 35 people on board to make a profit. The point was reiterated by Jim Ream and Fred Thompson at the Raymond James conference and again recently on an all pilot conference call.
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Bingo. You guys can put things in big blue letters and yell and scream all you want about 50 seaters not making money, but as merit has pointed out if we have 35 folks on one of our branded flights, we're taking a sack of money to the bank.

It's the subsidized flying that's killing us right now, though not many people in this thread has spoken with the knowledge of the CAL CPA that is necessary to understand the complexities of the situation.

That's fine, ya'll don't have to get it as long as my paycheck keeps coming. We'll see if that happens...
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

777forever I never said in any of my posts that I think Express Jet should cut pilots pay. Thats the last thing I think they should do. As said by someone earlier Continental has XJET by the short and curlys and its gonna be tough for them as long as the situation remains. But if other regionals are undercutting you and most of their pilots still seem to have decent QOLs something isn't right.

Good luck to you all and we should all realize it may be one of our companys any day. Keep your heads high.
 
Re: Expressjet offering COLAs (voluntary furloughs) to pilot

meritflyer said:
Get over yourself..
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I've met 777forever. Seemed like a nice humble guy to me. Certainly not someone that needs to "get over himself."

Could someone please remind me why everyone is arguing in this thread? ExpressJet isn't furloughing people. That's a good thing. Let's congratulate them and stop the bickering for once.
 
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