the truth
Dear DD,
Your statements, in my opinion, have some basis of truth. These aircraft will be the property of DHL so they certainly may do with them as they please. If they choose to employ European pilots and ignore Astar, and Polar (it looks as though they have already eliminated ABX from consideration) then they will remove the ability to fly those a/c through the gateway city and further into the US. Fly it to KJFK and you're done! Fly it to KILN and you're done. That seems to me to be a significant restriction on future operations. That is of course unless the Europeans think they can remove the cabatoge restrictions that presently exist in our country. Considering the sad state of affairs of the US airlines along with the fact that it is a Presidential Election year (one of the few times that labor truly has an effective voice) I think it is an unlikely time to expect a reduction in the present cabatoge rules. Actually from where I sit it appears to me that the whole decision on who is to get the B767-300F's is business as usual for DHL. More to do with cronyism than actual in depth business analysis. It seems that many business decisions are based upon present alliances and not with common sense and bottom line considerations. I would suggest that this is one of the reasons, yes there are many, that DHL has taken such a punch to the chin here in the US.
As an ABX pilot I have heard it said many times that we have some sort of arrogance toward DHL and their other more tenured pilot groups but I just don't see it that way. However, I do think that our pilot group has been continually disappointed over the last three and a half years with DHL's willingness to blame their poor management and operations on us. They run the show not ABX. That is part of the frustration from my side. You see the continual mistakes but you can't do anything about it! After three years of this type of management I have nearly lost the ability to care. Although I like what I do, I truly dread going to work to do it for a company that apparantly has so little appreciation for my effort and skills. How am I rewarded for my effort; by being bombarded with numerous press releases and leaked financial sources saying that my job is on the block due to DHL's losses in the US. Here I am trying to do the best job I can to defend DHL's market from FedEx and UPS and what is DHL doing? Discussing the possibilty of a "partnership" with the enemy that could mean the end of my job, wonderful!
Note: In the three and half years that I have been flying yellow airplanes I have yet to meet in person or to even communicate to a DHL manager here in KILN. You would think that it would be a priority for them to occasionally talk to the "troops" but apparantly not! Just because my company is a DHL contractor doesn't mean you should ignore us. During my last training sequence in KILN I asked my Chief Pilot who was the highest ranking DHL manager stationed in the Executive Offices in Wilmington. Unfortunately he did not know their name nor their position. This is very strange considering that we apparantly work in the same building with them. What a flawed corporate culture!