Welcome to BigJetCity.com

OK, ask them this one - straight out:

    Why is our entire government standing behind the 9-11 story that a goodly number of "us" know beyond any doubt is totally false?  And what is your position, as an airline pilot, on that story?

Trig Johnston

Hi,
    I wish both the candidates well in their campaign efforts. Although I'm in California, as you stated, just having anyone who knows anything about and has some feelings for the airline industry employees and what they have endured since 9/11 can only be helpful.
    My only question would be along the lines of anything that can be done to recoup our pensions from the unscrupulous tactics of those airlines who invoked bankruptcy with the express purpose of ridding themselves of their obligations to those who had spent all but the last few years of their careers with the assurance of a retirement only to have the airline executives falsify evidence of the true condition of the pension funds in order to divest themselves of it (USAirways specifically).

Thanks, and again, good luck!

Terry Bock
USAirways (retiree - NOT!)

Why do companies like Delta Airlines punish the non-union employees when you apply for Social Security and take back part of your pension? They lied to a Senator recently when he called Delta on my behalf. Delta management said it was a Federal requirement and they had no choice. If that was true then why is it Delta only made the Pilot Retirees only give back $98.00. If it was a Federal requirement then the pilots would have to give back exactly half of whatever their Social Security check amounts to. Delta is going to take back $1040.00 from my pension check when I apply for Social Security soon.  I am not a pilot.Management at Delta Airlines robs the little guys (non-union) to pad their pockets . The Flight Attendants at Delta have an on-going union vote as we speak  Let's hope they have enough employees to vote this in and then maybe they will be treated with some respect and began to change the way Delta treats the rest of the company. Jim Bu rchell (Retired Mechanic, 36 years at Delta) 

The MEC waved the FUD and told us to vote for the assessment last year. The money went to ALPA National. It’s gone now. So is the $300,000 lump sum that the company guaranteed our MEC in the TA for completing seniority integration. ALPA took it with them.

Editor's note: U-Turn's ability to move from generalizations and spout specifics keeps it worth reading regardless of your personal politics. Thanks again Dave!

Said John J. Tormey III, Esq. with Quiet Rockland: “‘Bobby’ Sturgell now deservedly earns the ignominious legacy of being the Wrong-Way Feldman of our time. Quiet Rockland demands immediate action from law enforcement to shut down the revised Airspace Redesign and force removal of Sturgell as FAA Administrator.

Pilots from Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines said they plan to meet next week to discuss a joint contract, according to a Dow Jones Newswires report.

Pilots from Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines Corp. (NYSE: NWA) and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) had previously said they were unable to agree on a contract because of seniority ranking. The two airlines announced their intention to merge in April.

According to a hotline message from the Northwest pilot union, the meeting will concentrate on a joint contract, the newswire reported. Seniority will be discussed later.

  A great article by Robert Mark, first published on his site, www.jetwhine.com. Thanks, Bob, for sharing.

Still trying to recover its corporate composure after a stinging slap in the face last week from Continental, United Airlines is now turning its focus on US Airways as a potential partner to reach the holy grail of corporate success … increased shareholder value.

Continental would have been a good fit, at least for United. Luckily for Continental, their managers were smart enough to run while they still had the chance however, because I think they smelled the blood in the water.

Rumors floating around the industry about this new US Airways merger run the gamut … that a desperate United, on the verge of another bankruptcy filing, is seeking a leadership bailout from a more stable carrier or that United’s employee groups will do everything under their power to oppose this joint venture because they already see another train wreck ahead … and they should know.

Employee relations have been terrible at United for almost as long as I can remember, certainly back before the 1985 pilot strike when the airline hired a few hundred new pilots in the face of those on the picket line, a decidedly poor decision when you have a collective bargaining agreement in place.

Employee chaos isn’t limited to pilots, although they often seem to garner most of the publicity. Mechanics watching many of their jobs being outsourced are angry and flight attendants still remember they were excluded from the Employee Stock Option Plan a few decades ago.

Left Holding the Bag

But if I were a United shareholder I’d be asking why those folks at Continental left us standing at the altar.

Here’s are a few thoughts.

Let’s place the responsibility for the state of the airline where it rightly belongs, with United’s management team, the same group that managed to push another few bits of bamboo under employee finger nails this week when the airline set aside another $130 million worth of stock for executive pay incentives management believes it needs in order to attract good management talent.

“Hello … Earth to United, Earth to Glenn. You’ve had oodles of bonus money for years and you still don’t seem to be able to hire executives that can get everyone working together smoothly.” That is supposed to be the point of all this cash, isn’t it? And shareholders seem to stand idly by while Glenn Tilton keeps talking about what he’s going to do to solve employee relations problems. It’s time for a little beef.

A good airline … a good company … is a balance of truly talented, dedicated people willing to give as good as they take. Employees at United want to help run a good airline. I think even they have given up on the words “great” and “United” being used together in the same sentence.

Bad Attitudes

Most of us on the outside think customers are the only group paying a price for poor management at United, but employees do as well. And miserable employees repeatedly passed over for any share of the pie often unknowingly avenge their angst on passengers which ultimately hurts United’s reputation in the marketplace. That drives down share prices.

Is there any guarantee that United would be profitable right now if it had better labor relations like say, Southwest Airlines? Of course not. But we’ll never know for sure will we.

If I were a United shareholder, I’m sure I’d be demanding top-notch value for my investment too.

But after 20 years of watching the swinging doors at the top, I’d have to be asking myself why United is either unable or unwilling to understand that workers who feel as if they are fairly treated will deliver more than a fair day’s work.

I’d also have to admit that as a shareholder, maybe I’d been complicit in the current state of my own company. And maybe, just maybe I’d start demanding a management team capable of delivering more than just talk about changing this beleaguered company.

Recently, Bob Lavender, an active Fed Ex pilot sent us his opinion on the effect of pilotseniority on the airline industry. Bob Rioux, a retired Delta pilot then shared his response. This is the latest in the discussion:(Bob Rioux's comments in red)

“There is a clear connection between FAA Reauthorization and ejection of ‘Bobby’ Sturgell as Acting Administrator. As long as Sturgell is at the FAA helm, infusing FAA with millions more dollars would be the equivalent of handing Kenneth Lay and Enron a suitcase full of cash”.

The companies said Tuesday that starting May 6 more than 100,000 employees and retirees of Atlanta-based Delta and Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest will get reciprocal access to both airlines' route systems for free, standby travel.

UAL, which already has had detailed merger talks for at least a month with US Airways Group Inc., recently embarked on parallel discussions with Continental Airlines Inc., according to people familiar with those situations. United wants to come to a decision about its preferred outcome in the next couple of weeks and a deal announcement by mid-May could be in the offing, said one person familiar with the matter.