"Someone said they are adding 11 B777 by end of 2010, so when will they start hiring or with these 11 airframe it's still net gain zero to fleet."
You are quite right high flyer, because at the end of the day, actions speak louder than words.
Here you have a company that is crying about being "overstaffed", and they go and extend their most expensive pilots that were due to retire for "natural causes". Other majors that are overstaffed for real would give their left nut for age 55 retirement. I know that most majors in the US and Europe are begging their seniors to take early retirement.
Then consider the fact that at Cathay we are chronically understaffed, at all times, that is just how the airline is run. Our reserve coverage is really not reserve because you are awarded trips days in advance - that is not what reserve is for. True last-minute disruptions are covered with O day extensions and G-day callouts.
Then the AOA wins the bypass pay court case. The DFO comes on about how it is not that big a deal - but the company appeals. Then, not a word about it for a few weeks. When does he choose to mention this? The friday when the mid-year figures are released, crying about how the AOA just keeps taking them to court. I got news for you sport, stop violating the contract and the court cases will go away.
And who pays to return aircraft early when flights are full? Managers that are trying to staff an airline without hiring, that is who. There are plenty of airlines like AirAsia that are looking for A340-300s to lease. I have a hard time believing that it is cheaper to pay ILFC hundreds of millions to take the planes back than it is to sub-lease them out to AirAsia.
Again, more bad decisions being made and they expect us to subsidize them. I'm not.
