Changes we've been seeing in the past month or few

[Kristie]

Can anyone confirm or deny any of these? I got this based off 3rd hand information...

Expressjet stopped hiring
Skywest stopped hiring
United stopped hiring
Delta stopped hiring
ASA stopped hiring
FedEx stopped hiring
UPS has stopped hiring
Expressjet is offering pilots unpaid leave of absences
United is grounding 15-20 737 aircraft
Delta is grounding 10? mainline aircraft
Northwest is grounding 24 DC-9 aircraft
Regional flying has been cut substantially
Comair, Skywest, Expressjet, ASA, Mesa, and others have had their regional contracted flying hours cut
Aloha Airlines filed for bankruptcy (again)
Skybus cut back almost 50% of their routes
Froniter sold 4 aircraft
Jetblue sold 6 aircraft

Delta information I know (contracting domestic mainline, expanding international) and we've already talked about Xjets COLA situation.....so i know those are right on.

[amelia]

I heard on the news that Delta is grounding 40 aircraft. If its true, I wonder if that includes the regionals as well as Delta itself.

DH siad that Skywest has stopped hiring. At the start of the year, they had plan to hire 600+ pilots. Not sure how many they acutally hired. I don't know if their flying has been cut back a lot. I heard about 2 routes that were cut for Delta, but thats it.

The one about Frontier is true. We have a friend that works there and they have stopped hiring and are cutting back on pilot hours. They don't think they will need to furlough at this time b/c there seem to be enough pilots leaving or planning to leave over the next several months (this is what our friend said). Like I said before, Frontier was also asking some pilots to take unpaid leave in Jan. Not sure if that has gone beyond Jan.

[skibum515]

i know the skywest one is true, my neighbor worked for them (he just got hired at CAL)

[katbuad]

Yes, Aloha Airlines has filed for bankruptcy again. Read the article in USA Today just last night. . .

Aloha Air blasts rival as it files for 2nd bankruptcy since 2004 - Today In the Sky - USATODAY.com

[katbuad]

On a local, Nashville TN, level Delta has cut some of its flights from the Nashville airport. I know that immediatly there is no more direct to Orlando and that the LaGuardia and Boston flights are being looked at for the chopping block.

The Orlando flight, I know was operated by hubbys' regional Chautauqua. The other two, I don't know if they were regional or mainline.

The local newspaper has archived the article, so I would now have to pay to have access to the article. But I believe the gist of the article was pointing the finger at the rising cost of fuel.

[Eastbayk]

I can only speak to the XJET ones. Here's what I've picked up from the pilot forum and speaking with other pilots there.

XJET has slowed hiring, but is still accepting applications and (I think) holding some interviews. Everyone since nov 07 or so has been going into a pool, waiting for class dates. Classes were expected in April 08, but may be pushed back to the fall or winter of 08. I'm guess technically they haven't stopped hiring, but in reality it would be a while before anyone new actually started doing any flying for them. From what I understand, the company is overstaffed on FO's, but understaffed on CA's. The last round of base/upgrade bidding was canceled (maybe 2 months ago?) and I'm not sure when the next one is. I think they are hoping that with attrition to the majors and people finding other opportunities while on a COLA that they can lean out their workforce without having furloughs.

COLA's are being offered for May, June, July. You can take one to three months of leave. I think they are offering 150 of these total. Two weeks prior to your intended return you have to write a letter stating you plan to return, otherwise they will terminate you. A's CP is trying to get him on one to protect our benefits for a few more months.

XJET branded had a plan to reduce some of it's flying in the month of April. I can say that A went from having a hard line (barely) in Jan, to being scheduled for reserve in April. I don't know how much they reduced though. They haven't lost any contracts with other airlines, although I think some of the CAL flying has been scaled back. I think it's seasonal though and will pick up in the summer. There is always concern about losing CAL flying with XJET pilots since it's such a big part of the companies business, but I've given up worrying about it until it actually happens. There are too many Chicken Littles running around!

K

[Hokuspocus]

I think that southwest is not hiring right now either, dh's best friends brother who works at sw (i know through the grapevine..) said that they were not hiring right now...

[katbuad]

Looks like some of the Delta grounded flights might be true. The article says 20 mainline and 20-25 regional jets.

Delta Grounds Several Bombardier Planes


The United grounding (or selling) planes seems like a possiblity too. CNN says as many as 20 737's.

United plans to shed at least 20 planes - Mar. 18, 2008

Frontier is selling 4 planes.

Frontier Airlines Media Room - News Releases

Most of these articles point to the rising cost of fuel. I heard on NPR a couple of weeks ago a discussion on the rising cost of fuel. And they said that supply and demand of fuel only accounts for oil up to about $89 a barrel that the increase above $89 is something else. In their discussion, they were talking about the subprime mortgage industry and other shaky financial industries (this was before Bear Stearns) making investors leery of parking their money there. So the investors start looking at other "safer" places to invest, ie oil.

Hear though a grapevine discussion that SWA was the best situated of all the airlines because they purchased huge quantities of fuel futures when the price first began to rise. But that is just grapevine speculation.

[kly_2007]

I know that United is only having one more new hire class that starts on the 31st of this month and then they are done hiring. They are grounding 15-20 737's.

I also heard that Delta is offering buyouts to 30,000 of it's employees. That includes every department of the company and that they are grounding some of their crj 200's. Not sure how many or if they are grounding any other aircraft. My hubby heard this one last week. Not sure if it is just a rumor or if it is true.

[Kristie]

Delta just stopped hiring today... for the next 8-10 months.

We had one buddy who'd had gotten the interview call back in December but kept putting it off (other things were higher priority i guess) and he got the cancellation call today.

Delta's grounding some mainline domestic aircraft but not international (they're beefing international up)...

I hear Eagle and RAH are still hiring but with everyone else pulling back, who knows how long that will last.