Polar Air Cargo, pilots enter cooling-off period, Atlas merger suspended
Thursday August 18, 2005
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, parent of Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo, suspended plans to merge the carriers in the face of a possible strike next month by Polar's pilots.Polar and the Air Line Pilots Assn. were released from negotiations by the National Mediation Board, starting a 30-day cooling-off period after which the pilots will be free to strike and Polar can impose a contract on the union. The cooling-off period is set to expire at 12:01 a.m. EDT Sept. 16.
Polar is a subsidiary of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings and an affiliate of Atlas Air. "While the company is committed to reaching an agreement, we simply can't agree to a contract that further challenges the viability of our scheduled service business," said AAWW President and CEO Jeffrey Erickson. Atlas said it offered Polar pilots an immediate 10.5% pay raise plus profit-sharing "with no work rule changes," putting them "at parity" with pilots at Atlas.
AAWW said it also suspended previously announced plans to combine the operations of Atlas and Polar and merge the crew lists. Polar operates 12 747Fs including six 747-400Fs in scheduled cargo service, while Atlas has 22 747s that it provides on ACMI leases to airlines.
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