...and little "love", either. Bummer. Hard times for the guys @ ALOHA:
ALOHA AIRLINES FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY A SECOND TIME
ALOHA AIRLINES FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY A SECOND TIME
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No ALOHA in PARADISE Today ...
- Thread starter A4sForever
- Start date
I'm actually off island with my kid at my brother's for spring break so I'm out of the loop.
All I know is that Tuesday, our union chairman got an e-mail from ALPA national asking if we had any hiring coming and if we would push for preferential hiring for Aloha. Prater said that the United had backed away from any deal with Aloha and Aloha's current financial backers were cutting off all funding. At that time he said Aloha had 48 hours to come to a decision on what to do and it didn't look good for continued operations. I got on a plane Wednesday night for LAX-SAN-STL and when I got to STL, I saw the bankruptcy story.
From what I understand, Aloha's cargo makes money and their international breaks even. It is their interisland that is killing them and Go's predatory pricing is what is hurting both Aloha's and Hawaiian's interisland bottomline. Interisland has never been a money maker but it was near break-even before Go. If Aloha can survive until October when their lawsuit against Go is heard, then they stand to win 3x's Hawaiian's $80 million win.
On Tuesday, I also saw a new, additional Go plane on the ramp so I think JO (Mesa) had an idea this was coming. However, the locals have never really liked Go and this will turn the locals more against them. I think in the long run it will hurt Go more than it will help them as the locals have long memories. If Aloha goes chapter 7 or is broken up, there are many that will never forgive Go.
All I know is that Tuesday, our union chairman got an e-mail from ALPA national asking if we had any hiring coming and if we would push for preferential hiring for Aloha. Prater said that the United had backed away from any deal with Aloha and Aloha's current financial backers were cutting off all funding. At that time he said Aloha had 48 hours to come to a decision on what to do and it didn't look good for continued operations. I got on a plane Wednesday night for LAX-SAN-STL and when I got to STL, I saw the bankruptcy story.
From what I understand, Aloha's cargo makes money and their international breaks even. It is their interisland that is killing them and Go's predatory pricing is what is hurting both Aloha's and Hawaiian's interisland bottomline. Interisland has never been a money maker but it was near break-even before Go. If Aloha can survive until October when their lawsuit against Go is heard, then they stand to win 3x's Hawaiian's $80 million win.
On Tuesday, I also saw a new, additional Go plane on the ramp so I think JO (Mesa) had an idea this was coming. However, the locals have never really liked Go and this will turn the locals more against them. I think in the long run it will hurt Go more than it will help them as the locals have long memories. If Aloha goes chapter 7 or is broken up, there are many that will never forgive Go.
As long as GO pilots keep falling asleep at the wheel, it may be a self correcting issue.
Nothing like bottom feeders working for penny wages, destroying the profession. Damn Mesa pukes.
Nothing like bottom feeders working for penny wages, destroying the profession. Damn Mesa pukes.
I regularly fly Mesa, and I know a lot of their pilots come from the ASU aircraft degree.
Sorry to threadjack, but should I be concerned?
I would never let my daughter or any of my family fly on an airline that hires pilots with a brand new commercial license and 250 hour of total flight time. Doesn't matter where they go for their degree or if it is a flying degree.
Civilian training is not the same as military training. The 250 hour civilian pilot does not have the experience to be flying pax.
My daughter doesn't fly on the regionals.
Civilian training is not the same as military training. The 250 hour civilian pilot does not have the experience to be flying pax.
My daughter doesn't fly on the regionals.
Are we talking 250 TT left seaters???? Methinks no. I had a real wake up the other day in the sim...We were doing our first "in the goo" approach in the Level D and it was sporty...just having the FE sitting there drove home what a responsibility it is more than any flight with an IP.
250-300 hour FOs. But it's a two-man crew and the Captain shouldn't have to be babysitting. Teaching the new guy and helping him gain knowledge/experience is one thing. Flight instructing is entirely different altogether.
I flew with 250 hour FOs in the Twin Otter at Scenic. It was acceptable there as the Otter is really a single pilot aircraft and only had an FO because of FARs. Plus it is not what I'd call a high performance airplane. I cringe at the thought of some of these guys going into a 50 pax jet with the time/experience they had when they came to Scenic.
I flew with 250 hour FOs in the Twin Otter at Scenic. It was acceptable there as the Otter is really a single pilot aircraft and only had an FO because of FARs. Plus it is not what I'd call a high performance airplane. I cringe at the thought of some of these guys going into a 50 pax jet with the time/experience they had when they came to Scenic.
I regularly fly Mesa, and I know a lot of their pilots come from the ASU aircraft degree.
Sorry to threadjack, but should I be concerned?
No. I know a lot of the guys who fly for Mesa. Everyone I know is very professional and most had close to or over 1,000 TT when they got hired. Yes working for Mesa sucks, but unless you get hired at Skywest or Horizon most of the other regionals are the same except they have better work rules.
I don't think it's fair to call the current pilots scum suckers or whatever because they weren't the ones who negotiated their current contract. It's not like they're freedom scabs or anything like that. Hate JO not the pilots.
Last I checked, where you work is a personal decision. If you take a job with a bottom feeder because they'll take you with lower time, it's your problem, not JO's.
I heard that the failure rate @ the regionals is/was at an all time high recently and that there have been issues w/ maturity not just skillz (i.e. pulling out an iPod in the cockpit)
I know I wouldn't get on an airplane w/ some of my friends who are graduating.
This has been a longstanding problem in civil airline cockpits ... i.e., newspapers, magazines, cassette players (old school?
), and now, the ubiquitous iPod inflight ... it would seem that some cannot go from point "A" to "B" without an assist to overcome the mind-numbing routine of hours of flying, punctuated by a few minutes of stark terror (you've all heard that old saw, I am certain).I could never do much about it -- except do my job -- when I was 2nd or 3rd seat in the cockpit, but when I moved to the left seat, I brought the rest of the crew in line with Company directives against permitting or participating in "reading and other distractions while on duty aloft" in the cockpit.
When the newspapers or electronics would come out, I'd just make one comment something to the effect of:
"You fellows know the company prohibition against these things, and I really don't care what you do as long as you don't miss ANYTHING. If you find you need to read or listen to music, I'm not going to tell you NOT to -- you know what the Company says and you know what's right. The only thing I require is no missed radio calls, no missed nav checkpoints, fuel "how-go-zit"s, you know the drill. If you can do everything right and not miss anything, then you can read (or listen to music; whatever ...). If you miss things -- then you've proven that you CAN'T fly and read at the same time ....
Without exception, the newspapers, magazines, and electronic crutches were quietly put away ...
To me, it was simple: we got paid a lot of money to do a job; a GREAT job that was sought out by many. It seemed like a small price to pay to focus for 1, 2, or 12 hours
eek and move the people and/or boxes from "A" to "B" without the assist of music (?) or the WSJ. Yeah, I know, I'm just a mean ol' man. So you tell ME what's right ....
Which begs the question... what the hell is a probate FO doing breaking out an iPod in flight? You haven't proven yourself as a competent pilot, or a first officer for that matter. What has to be running through that pea brain to think that's a good idea, especially in front of the Captain whose no doubt been around the block a few more times?
The downward spiral of the profession continues...
The downward spiral of the profession continues...
I think it's called attitude. A proper attitude.
And it's been sorely lacking in many of the "junior" airline personnel going back @ 20-25 years or so ...
What drives me wild are cell phones in the cockpit. They're not used in flight but I don't know how many times I've had to listen to some pw'd weenie proclaim his undying love to his whatever and get sullen when you want them to put it away. Yeah, I know there are circumstances where they're legal but I want to rip them out of their ear and stomp on them like a Jane Fonda DVD.